Different Path
by Iapis
Summary: Tales unfold all from the beginning, and more... Characters finds themselves thinking of their past as they travel with new people to the end, all from the beginning. Same things take place, but also more troubles comes their way...
1. Beginning

_"Hmph... This girl is a failure. Her will to disobey, the inability to respond... It's clear that this was a rather fruitless attempt, even if she has those strange powers that a summoner don't have," the voice that the small 9-year-old girl dread and hate rings through the blue-lighted room, all the way to her small cell. The ceiling above shows the red planet, the one that he wishes to take over, destroy. How or why, the girl doesn't know._

_"Losing the other two subjects, somewhere on Gaia... It's clear that I'll need to try again, much harder than before. But I best start fresh, she's useless right now for this," he continues as his footsteps starts to fade off. The horned girl with small wings and a white tail with black spots continues to sit against the wall, never moving from that spot even after many hours since she was put there. She is more like a lifeless body or a doll than someone alive. She had lost all her will to move, to even live, even before the man took her from where her tribe of summoners and feline-people roamed for centuries..._

_"Poor, poor girl..." a new voice says after many days of being alone, as the girl's eyes register that there is someone in front of her, though because she is only staring at the floor with somewhat blank eyes, she only sees silver boots and a white waist cape. "A cat, longing to be set free to loop around... That's what you are, the cat in a cage." He kneels down next to her, using a finger to lift her face up by the chin. The girl now stares up into the face of the feathery, silver-haired man. His blue eyes shows a kind look to them, though strangely enough a sinister look, as well... The girl doesn't notice it, though, as she blinks to focus a little bit more. "Do you wish to get away from here? I can take you back to your home planet. He won't even think twice about finding you, he left you here to die."_

_**'Is it possible? An... escape from this place of pain and experimenting?'** the girl thought with small hope starting to fill her. The man patiently waits for her to say anything as she finally move on her own will, sitting up more and lifting her head from his hand. "...Y...You... can?" she said uncertainly, the first time to talk after many months of nothing but screaming in pain from whatever the man did when he experiments._

_The new man smiles softly. "Yes, I most certainly can." He stands up and lowers the same hand down. "Come on, we best go. Oh, and where are my manners?" he said as the girl takes his hand and gets helped to her feet. "My name is Kuja. May I have yours?"_

"M... My n-name is Rose..." the strange-looking girl, Rose, said as Kuja leads her out of the lab, and on to a new life and dangers...

**DISCLAIMER**

I don't own Final Fantasy 9, nor any of the copyrighted characters. Rose, who doesn't belong in FF9, belongs only to me. And other characters (Zellen, for one), belongs to my friends on Gaiaonline. Later on, I'll make a list of the new characters and who they belong to.

**Chapter I:** Beginning

3rd person P.O.V.

"Ya'll hurry up! The ship's about ta take off yonder!"

"We're coming Ruby!" Blank yells as he and Zidane run for the Prima Vista ship. Regent Cid had given them orders to head to Alexandria and perform the play, 'I Want To Be Your Canary' and kidnap the princess during the last scenes. Zidane doesn't know why Regent wanted Princess Garnet at Lindblum, but they would get good gil for the job. Managing to get on the ship before it took off, Blank heads upstairs, while Zidane gone to the small room that he's going to hang at for the first part of the trip. He finds ship rides long and boring. All knows Zidane as the 'monkey-tailed, blonde hair boy', wearing the blue vest with laces at the neck, slightly baggy jeans, and big gloves. Blank has crimson-red, spikey hair, always wearing his headband over his right eye. He also wears a vest with no long-sleeved shirt (just red, not blue) like Zidane, and also big gloves. The only thing about the pants is that he wears shorts instead.

The trip takes about 3 hours before they finally near Alexandria. Zidane stretches and takes off for the other room. He slides down the pole and walks into the room to find the whole room dark.

"Sure is dark…" he said to himself. He walks in further. "Guess nobody's here yet…"

He lights a match and found his way to the candles in the middle of the room. He lights the candles and the whole room lights up.

"Who's there?" a voice shouts from the other room next to the room Zidane stands in.

"It's me, Zidane!" Zidane answers as Blank, Cinna, and Marcus runs out of the room. They all saluted to each other - hitting one fist on the other wrist.

Blank looks at Zidane as he said, "Hey Zidane! You sure are late!"

"Sorry. So, where's the boss?"

"Ain't here yet," Cinna answers.

Suddenly, the other door kicks open and a man in a dragon mask jumps into the room and attacks the others.

"What the hell did this thing come from?" Cinna shouts as he dodges.

"I don't know, just defend!" Zidane said as he rushes in for a hit.

Every so often throughout the fight, the masked guy falls over and yells, "Oww!" And every time he hits Zidane or his friends, he yells, "Get some!" and "Gwahaha!".

When Zidane slices the mask in half finally, it actually turns out to be their boss, Baku.

"UGHUUA!" he yells as he grabs his head. "Oh, my head! Go easy, you guys!"

"It's your fault for attacking us in a dragon mask," Blank mumbles. Everyone feels stupid now for not realizing that it's Baku, not a monster.

Zidane and the others are now catching their breaths as Baku walks up to them. They really wish that Boss would stop fighting them at unexpected times...

"Hey, fools!" Baku yells at everyone as they kept resting. "You're looking' a lot better!" he said as he pats Zidane on top of his head. "Gwahahaha!" He laughed as he walks to the room **(that Blank, Cinna, and Marcus ran out of to meet Zidane) **and kicks the door open. "Alright! Let's start this meeting already!" Baku yelled as he walks in. Zidane and the others follows in, taking a seat at their usual places. "Here's the plan!

"Tantalus, the infamous band of daring thieves **_(that's us)_**, is heading to the Kingdom of Alexandria…" Baku stands over the model of Alexandria and is holding a doll that represents Princess Garnet. Baku looks around. "Our mission: to kidnap the heir to the throne, Princess Garnet!"

"I'll take it from here, so listen up!" Cinna says as he stands up, everyone switching their attention to him. "Our ship's about to dock at Alexandria…" Cinna shows a model of the airship. "And when it does, we're going to put on our costumes… and perform 'I Want To Be Your Canary', the most popular play in Alexandria!" Cinna looks at Marcus. "Break a leg Marcus! 'Cause you're playin' the lead!"

"Leave the actin' to me!" Marcus replies. He looks at Blank, then Zidane. "Of course the real kidnappers'll be Blank and Zidane!"

"I'll distract the audience from the backstage with these little buggers." Blank says as a oglop croaks from his clothes. "I can't stand oglops… But I'll manage, so don't worry about me. And that'll be your cue, Zidane!"

"Okay!" Zidane says. Then he had a idea. A very funny idea… _'Let's try this mind-trick I've picked up.'_ "That's when I kidnap Queen Brahne, right?" he said to his boss, with a smirk.

"You bet!" Baku says as he pulls a doll of Queen Brahne off the table, from behind the model of Alexandria. "You're gonna kidnap the fat-ass, butt-ugly Queen Br- What… what'm I sayin'?!" Baku yelled as he throws the doll behind him. He growls to himself for falling for that.

"Okay, okay. Then that's when I kidnap Princess Garnet, right?" Zidane says, already did his little trick.

"That's right. You're going to kidnap the most babe-ilicious beauty in all of Alexandria, Princess Garnet!" Baku said, though he continues giving Zidane a glare.

--

With a little black mage in the city, Vivi's walking past the statue in the square of the entrance when the ship, Prima Vista, appears above the city, which he and other stares at while it passes. Continuing on walking towards the castle, he's suddenly knocked forward by one of the running boys. The boy continues on without helping Vivi. Little Ilia kneels next to Vivi.

"Are you awight?" she asks Vivi. Vivi gets up as the girl picks up the ticket that was knocked out of his jacket. "Here! You dwopped your ticket," she said as she hands the ticket over to Vivi. "Bye-bye!" she said with a cute smile as she runs off, waving.

Vivi looks after her, then continues on down to the castle until he's knocked down **_again_** by some boy that looks like a rat. Vivi and the boy gets back up.

"Why you - get outta my way!" Rat boy yells as he ran around Vivi. Vivi watches him as he disappears, then follows the crowd of people. _'Am I that small that people would knock into me...?' _he thought to himself. He spotted a group of nobles from Treno gathered around the trumpeter.

"Honorable nobles of Treno… Castle Alexandria is this way!" the trumpeter said as he turns around and sound the trumpet. He walks off, leading the nobles to the castle. Vivi follows them a while, being that it's the first time in the city. Reaching the square, he spotted a group of girls playing jump rope. He walks to the ticket booth, pulling out the ticket.

"Can I help you, son?" the Ticketmaster asks as he leans over the counter. The size of the man scares Vivi slightly, but the man has a friendly smile, so he isn't bad.

"Uh… um… What's showing today?" Vivi asks.

"This year's performance is the masterpiece 'I Want To Be Your Canary' . The Tantalus Company is performing," he answers Vivi.

" What kind of troupe is Tantalus?" Vivi asks.

"They're star performers from Lindblum, the regency to the west, with accompaniment by Lav Layderce!" Ticketmaster said.

"What is 'I Want To Be Your Canary' about?"

"This play is a tale of romance between a noble and a peasant! You really must see it!" the ticketmaster says to Vivi. Vivi is now really wanting to see this play. But he wants some more information of the town of Alexandria, so he's going to get them from the ticketmaster while he's in an answering mood.

"I-I will. Tell me about Alexandria."

"The Kingdom of Alexandria is a fine country, ruled by Queen Brahne."

Vivi becames quite curious about the Queen. "Who's Queen Brahne?"

"Did you know Queen Brahne has a beautiful daughter, Princess Garnet?" the ticketmaster said, not answering the question directly.

"Tell me about Queen Brahne!" Vivi said loudly.

"Unfortunately, I've heard strange things about Queen Brahne recently," Ticketmaster said, not answering the question directly again. Vivi decides to give up on the question.

"Who's Princess Garnet?" he asks instead.

"Today is Princess Garnet's sixteenth birthday, you know!" is all Vivi got from the Ticketmaster.

"Tell me about Princess Garnet!" Vivi asks loudly again. The Ticketmaster is really a one-track man...

"Her Highness is a beautiful princess, and everyone in Alexandria loves her!"

"Is Princess Garnet really that beautiful?" Vivi asks.

"Why, she's the most beautiful princess in the history of Alexandria!" Ticketmaster exclaims.

_'He really is not that good with answering questions...'_ Vivi thought as he holds up his ticket. "H-here's my ticket for the show."

The Ticketmaster looks at it strangely. "What's this? There's something odd about this ticket…" he said slowly as he studies it. "Why, it's another fake! I've seen so many today." Vivi looks at it, and it turns out that the Ticketmaster was right... It said instead 'I Want to Be Your Crow'!

"Nooooo!" Vivi exclaimed, bowing his head. He was given that ticket from the friendly airship captain that brought him to Alexandria... and it's a fake!

"Now, now. Don't cry. I know how you must feel. Here, I'll give you these. Do try to cheer up now, hmm?" the Ticketmaster says as he hands a Goblin card, a Skeleton card, and a Fang card. "Talk to Alleyway Jack to learn more about cards. Good luck lad!" Ticketmaster said as Vivi walks away, waving.

'_Now what will I do? I can't see the show…' _Vivi thought to himself. Running into the alleyway leading to the water, he trips, causing the signmaker miss on the sign he made for the theatre next to it.

"Blast it!" Dante yelled. He climbs down the ladder and glares at Vivi. "Hey! You made me miss, you little klutz!" he yells as Vivi dusts himself off. Dante climbs back up the ladder and re-hangs the sign. "Whew. That should do it," he said to himself as he climbs back down. "Well, it's been a long day," he said, walking off.

The Rat kid suddenly appears from the other side of the alley and approaches the ladder and Vivi.

"Hey, you! Shrimp! You're the one with the phoney ticket, ain'tcha? I saw the guy tell you it was a fake!"

"Y-Yeah, it's fake," Vivi said hesitantly.

"I'll let you see the show if you become my slave! Well, whaddya say?" Rat kid said to Vivi.

"U-um... A-Alright," Vivi said, nodding. He really wants to see the show, and he doubts that the rat kid is serious about the slave part.

"Awesome! Now for your first assignment!" Rat kid said. "You go stand over there and see if anyone's comin'!"

Vivi runs over to the side of the alleyway that he came through and looks around. No one, as far as he could see.

"All clear?" Rat kid yells as they turn around to look at each other.

"Yeah, it's clear," Vivi yells back.

"Awesome! Engage according to mission parameters!" Rat kid said. He runs over to the ladder and picks it up over his head as Vivi walks over to him. The Rat kid runs off in the direction he came from. Vivi follows, though he finds that the other kid is much faster, even with a ladder.

"Over here!" Rat kid yells as he run towards the steeple. "Don't fall behind! Into the steeple!" he said before he disappears into the said building, Vivi catching up. "Now we're gonna climb up this tower!" Rat kid says as he goes to the side.

"T-the tower? Climbing up that?" Vivi said, being that he's afraid of heights...

"It's very dangerous... You go first!" he orders Vivi.

_'Oooohhhh, why me?' _Vivi thought as he goes over to the ladder and look up, grabbing one of the steps… but then it's to find a small mass of something furry falling on top of him!

"Ahahaha! What the heck was that?!" Rat kid said. Vivi stands up and walks out of the tower, allowing the thing to exit.

"Sorry 'bout that, kupo!" he said.

"That's Kupo. He's a moogle," Rat kid said to Vivi.

"Kupo!"

"And this is slave number one!" Rat kid said to Kupo, introducing Vivi. "Try to get along, okay?"

"Kupo! Pleased to meet you!" Kupo said to Vivi. "I sorry. I enter you in Moogle Diary!" Kupo said, apologizing for falling on him. Vivi nods in agreement.

"Alright, time for some upward mobility!" Rat kid said. He runs over to the ladder, adjusts the ladder he's carrying, and starts climbing. When reaching the top, he looks down at Vivi. "Okay, come on up, slave!"

Stiltzkin walks in with his traveling clothes on while Vivi was walking towards the ladder. "Kupo…? You here?" he asks Kupo.

"Kupo! Stiltzkin! Why that getup?" Kupo asks Stiltzkin. "You leaving, kupo?"

"Yeah, and this time I might be away for a long time."

"I'll miss you, kupo."

"Now don't worry. I'll write."

"Okay, kupo!"

"Well, I'm off. Take care! Oh, and say hi to Mosh in the castle for me," Stiltzkin said before leaving.

"Was that a friend of yours?" Vivi asks Kupo.

"Yes, kupo. A very special one, kupo!"

"Hey slave! I thought I ordered you up here!" Rat kid yells once more.

"K-kupo, looks like you better go up before he gets real mad."

"Y-yea," Vivi said as he reaches the ladder and climb it.

"Alright, the play's about to start if we don't hurry!" Rat kid said. He walks across the planks that crosses the two roofs. Vivi stops and looks at the planks, making Rat kid look back at Vivi. "Come on! Get over here!" Vivi looks up at the rat kid, then at the planks in fear. "Lemme guess… You're afraid of heights, aren't you?" Rat kid asks. Vivi nods. "It's okay! Just pretend that you are on the ground!" Rat kid said to Vivi. Vivi tries that and find that it works well for him.

_'Whew... I made it across!'_

"Come on, already! We're runnin' outta time!" Rat kid said and run across another set of planks. Vivi follows until he reaches the planks. "Not again…" Rat kid complains. "Don't worry! It won't fall!" he said. Vivi begins to walk across the planks… then they suddenly starts shaking! Vivi jumps off in time as the planks crack and fall. "Hahahah… I guess it fell," Rat kid said. "No point in worrying now, right?" he asks Vivi as starts running again. Vivi follows him as he crosses another set of planks.

_'I wouldn't be doing this, if I don't want to watch the play... that was really close!'_

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" Rat kid said as he pauses for Vivi to catch up. "I don't even know your name!"

"It's Vivi," Vivi said to Rat kid.

"So your name's Vivi, huh? Kinda funny name…" Rat kid said. "My name's Puck! Pleased to meet'cha!" Puck said as he runs off again. Vivi follows him across all the planks. They reach to the last roof that is next to the wall of the castle.

"Whew… We finally made it!" Puck said. He throws the ladder across the two roofs to make the final bridge. Puck runs across it and turns to Vivi. "After this wall, we'll be inside the castle! C'mon, let's go!" Puck said, leading Vivi in.

_'At last, we made it...'_ Vivi thought to himself as he tries to keep up with Puck.

--

"Lady Rose, shouldn't you be in the balcony? And why are you wearing that cloak?" a Pluto knight said as one of the guests of Queen Brahne walks by.

"Sorry, but I wish for some time to myself right now," the 17-year-old woman, Rose, said as she turns her head to look at him. The long, golden horn on her forehead is really hard to hide, but she manages to wear the cloak just right for it to be hidden. The only time that it's seen is when some light hits it, shining it underneath the hood. She really looks like an woman with a deformed back, being that her wings are bunched underneath the cloth. But she doesn't care, as long as they're hidden from the people. She hates answering questions about the wings. The horn and tail is more understandable and accepted than the damn wings.

"Well... Well, being that I have no control over you because you are a guest, I guess I can't make you do anything," the knight said with a shrug. "Want me to tell Kuja that you're going for a walk or anything?"

"No, it is okay. Master Kuja is currently talking to Queen Brahne, so I do not wish to disturb him. Need not worry, he will understand," Rose said politely as she gives a slight bow, then turn and walk off. The soldier shudders a bit.

"Gawd, she really needs to lighten up her mood... The way her face always look cold gives me the creeps!" he mumbles.

Rose finds that the boat that ferries the people across the river that seperates the castle grounds from the rest of the city, gone.

_'Looks like I shall have to fly,'_ Rose thought as she goes to an abandoned spot of the castle grounds, where she couldn't be seen by people. Taking off her cloak, she spreads her great white wings behind her. Her golden-brown horn shines in the sunlight and her long cheetah-looking tail waveing behind her. Her purple, long-sleeved shirt that's over a longer-sleeved red shirt (one can tell because of the slits in the shoulder parts, as well as the small amount at the end of her sleeves, bottom of the purple shirt, and the collar area at the neck) makes the whiteness of the wings stand out more. As does her long purple pants makes the tail stand out. The only thing not purple is the brown boots, and the black glove on her right hand and wrist.

_'I hope no one sees me while getting across,'_ she said in her head as she leaps into the air and glide her way across the water, to the harbor docks, being that it's almost always abandoned of people. Especially that day, being that people has tried to get in and see the play that way for free. Soldiers make sure that no one goes in, **_most_** of the time anyway.

At the said place, there stands another person. She has short, blonde hair, wearing a white vest (no laces), light blue long-sleeved shirt under the vest, and dark blue jeans. The leather boots goes over the edge of the jeans, mid-way up her legs. But no gloves for her, though. The only thing different with her from people is... her monkey-like tail.

_'I've looked everywhere, but it looks like they're not here...'_ she thought, looking for people that she've been searching after for years now. _'The rumor DID say Alexandria, right? ...I just hope that **he **isn't here...'_ the girl adds with a slight shudder. She sits against the wall, near the docks and alleyways of the city (as well as the steeple), resting.

The sound of something flying overhead and a soft thud catches her attention, jerking her out of her thoughts and towards the alleyway that is a dead-end. She watches as someone in a black cloak emerge from the alley. The person doesn't seem to see her, as she starts walking her way.

_'That's strange, I thought I was the only one here. And isn't that alleyway a no-way deal, even without doors?'_ the girl thought as the person now realizes that she's sitting there - being that she tripped over the girls' feet.

"Whoa!" the person in the cloak said as she manages to catch her balance without falling. The hopping around shook the hood around a bit, the light catching something underneath it and making it shine for a second or two. She turns to the girl that's sitting there, almost expecting to fight or something. After about a minute of staring (being that the girl is familiar and yet not), she makes a small bow.

"I apoligize, I did not see you there," she said.

"It's okay," the girl said as she stands and dust herself off. "I probably shouldn't have stuck my legs out like that for people to trip."

"Hey, you two!" the patrolling Alexandrian soldier shouts as she stands there at the top of the stairs. "You're not allowed back here! The play's about to start, and you're not going to get free seats in the front!"

"We are not trying to sneak in," the girl in the cloak said a bit coldly. "I am going to leave here, do not worry about me..."

"And I'm doing nothing! I'm just searching for some people!" the other girl said with her hands on her hips, defending herself.

"Hmph... Fine, but you two better **_not_** be here when I come back!" the soldier said as she huffs again and leave.

"I hate being accused of somethin', don't you?" the girl said with a slight laugh.

"Very much so," the other replies as she pulls on the hood to cover her face more, out of habit. She looks up, then raises an hand to the other girl. "I am Rose Laxzi. May I have your name?" she said a bit ackwardly.

"Zellen. Zellen Tribal," Zellen said with a smile, shaking hands with Rose. "Hey, I know it isn't much of my business, but is that a horn under that hood?" she said, being that she did see that shining.

"...Yes," Rose admits with a slight sigh.

"Then... that makes you a summoner?"

"...Yes." _'Half summoner, by blood...'_

"I thought Madeen Sari was destroyed, as were all of the summoners. So I'm just a bit surprised," Zellen said, her tail wavering a bit.

_'And I am surprised to see someone of the other place... But you do not act like they did...'_ Rose thought to herself.

"I'm not gonna ask about the cloak business, but I got another question," Zellen continues. "You know the airship, Prima Vista? Do ya know the people that's on there? I'm searching for some friends of mine."

"Let me see... I do not remember the names, but I do have a sort of pamphlet that give the names of the crew..." Rose said slowly as she reaches into her pants pocket, looking for a folded piece of paper that she was handed earlier. "Here it is," she said as she tries the other pocket, unfolding it and looking at the words. "It says 'Tantalus proudly presents 'I Want to Be Your Canary', with Baku as King Leo, Ruby as the lovely Princess Cornelia, Marcus as Marcus, and additional characters such as Cinna, Blank, Zidane - ' "

"Blank? Did you say Blank?" Zellen said quickly, her eyes wide open.

"Do you know him?"

"Yes! Yes, I do!" Zellen said. "Now I know where to go!"

"Though... How will you be able to get onboard of the Prima Vista airship...?" Rose said, realizing the main problem before Zellen.

"Oh... Yeah..." Zellen said sadly. Rose gives a small frown.

_'I cannot believe what I am going to say, but I want to help out...'_ "Maybe... I can help with getting you there..." Rose said slowly as she removes the hood from her head. "...Are you afraid of heights?"


	2. On With the Show

_Crying quietly to herself, the younger self of Zellen tries to hide as well as possible in the alleys, running. She managed to escape from the auction house of Treno, escaping **him**. Hopefully once and for all._

_Ever since she could remember, she has been in the man's grasp, never knowing anything but pain... Whenever she did something wrong, she was punished. Severely..._

_**'I think... I'm safe for now...'** she thought as she heavily pant, clenching at her chest, over her heart. **'God, this hurts...'**_

_"'Cuse me, you okay?" a young boy's voice said, making Zellen jump. She turns her head, looking at a boy that looks like a year older than herself, with spikey red hair... "Sorry I scared you! I was doin' somethin' for the Boss, and I just found you here!" he said when he saw the tears in her eyes._

_"N-no, it's not you," Zellen said as she forces the crying to stop._

_"You're bleeding... Are ya hurt?" he said worryingly. Zellen bites her lower lip as she nods slowly. "What happened?"_

_"I... It was... I was attacked..." she said hesitantly, lying in some way but telling the truth all the same..._

_"By whom? Nevermind on that, I better get you some help," the boy said as he comes closer. "Someone from the gang should know how to help with the wounds." Zellen steps back from him, in more of a reaction than anything. "Please, I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to help."_

_"...O-okay," Zellen said as she let him approach closer. Before she realizes it, he actually just picks her up, taking her to where he came from in the first place. For the first time in her life, she felt... safe. "U-um... Can I... Will you tell me your name...?" she said. The boy nods as he gives a small smile._

_"It's Blank."_

**Chapter II:** On With the Show

Everyone rushes around as they start putting on their costumes and such. Zidane watches in some amusement, being that he's going to wear his usual clothes - they wouldn't stick out at all in the play. Blank and Marcus are doing the same thing, laughing as someone trips. Zidane, being bored, walks around and watching the preparations of the stage. He even looks at the audience.

"That's a lot of people!" he said with a laugh, seeing all the nobles and people lucky enough to earn enough gil to buy a **real** ticket. And plus with the house-top viewers, everything's gonna be big!

" Yo! You guys almost ready?" he yells at the others.

" Aye Zidane! Almost! Boss is still getting into his costume." Blank said. Zidane laughs.

" With all those layers of clothes, it would have been a record that he was ready already!" Blank laughs with Zidane.

" True, true. Oh well, he ought to be ready in a few more minutes. The band people are already in place, everyone has set the setting up, everyone has their costumes on, and all the stuff we need to kidnap the Princess is here."

" That's good," Zidane said with a grin.

"Alrigh'! Is the play almost ready to go?" Baku yells as he finally comes, ready for the show.

"Yeah Boss, we were just waiting for you!" Blank said. "Hey you! Get the band know this, now!" Blank said to one of the people that was helping. He salutes and runs off to the band. The play was about to get underway.

--

"Watch out!" Zellen yells as Rose keeps a good hold of her, flying high overhead of the settling ship. Rose flaps harder and goes around the castle's tower.

"Sorry," she said. She's trying hard to avoid the guards, Queen Brahne, Princess Garnet and Master Kuja's view more than anything else. So far, it's going good, other than the almost run-in event. "We are going to have to land on the back stage area, where there is no one to see us. Not even by the people on top of their houses."

"That's fine, just be careful!"

Zellen can still hardly believe that the girl Rose has **_wings_**, and carrying her in the sky, to the airship! It's all strange to have this kind of luck...

_"WHOA! Is-is that... **wings**?" she said after she said, "No. Why?" to Rose's question about being afraid of heights. Rose completely removed her cloak, showing her wings and tail. "No... WAY! There's no way you're a summoner, is there?"_

_"Please... Keep it quiet..." Rose said as she looks over her shoulder. "I am a summoner, just a bit different from the others... Do you wish to go to the airship, or should I just forget about helping...?"_

_"Y-yes, please," Zellen said as she nods her head. "I want to get there!"_

"We are about to land," Rose said, shaking Zellen from her thoughts of the just-events. "I am going to have to drop you a foot or two to the ground."

"That's fine, just as long as it's not something like ten!" Zellen said. Rose smiles slightly, then drops the smile as she nears the back area of the ship, flapping her wings harder to start slowing down and lower to the ground. Once close enough, she lets go of Zellen, who lands with grace. With that done, Rose moves away a bit before letting her wings go 'limp', so to speak, dropping her to the ground as well. The white wings fold against her back as she lands with cat-like grace - which means bending waist enough to have both arms and legs aiming down at the ground, but it's still just the feet hitting the ground. She straightens back up and pulls the cloak out from her bag on her back that's snug between her wings, quickly placing it around her and hiding her once more.

"What are we to do, now? I doubt that we will be able to ask around for the people you are looking for," Rose said.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Zellen said. "I'm not gonna ask, being that I already know where they're gonna be at! On stage, performing!"

"I remember now..." Rose turns her head suddenly. "Hide, someone is coming this way," she said as she ducks behind a costume rack. Zellen gets behind a potted plant in time for one of the triplets, Benero, to walk by without noticing. "Okay... We best hide somewhere, or else be caught. In fact, we should go in separate ways."

"No arguments here," Zellen said as she runs off in one direction, Rose in another and up a ladder.

–

Vivi and Puck are now sneaking behind all the nobles, after all the time of getting to the stands from the wall that they got over. All of the sudden, the band starts playing. After a little more ways, they stop as everyone begin to clap. The mage and rat kid claps as well, as the platform with the people playing interments were raising. They hope that they wouldn't be noticed, being that soldiers are everywhere..

"This is goin' to be a good day!" one noble said.

"Of course it's going to be! It IS Princess Garnet's birthday!" another said.

_'Then why do I have a weird feeling that something's going to happen?'_ Vivi asks himself.

–

Queen Brahne and Princess Garnet are on the balcony, watching as the platform is being raised. Garnet's mother begins to dance as the band starts to play the opening theme of the play, seemingly overjoyed about something. In fact, ever since Garnet turned 16... Garnet just looks away, thinking of her plan of escaping Alexandria. She needs to get to her uncle's castle in Lindblum. Her mother is planning something, and she knows it has something to do with that man that has shown up a year ago.

'_I have to sneak onboard the Prima Vista,' _she thought, running the plan in her mind again. She doesn't wish to be caught by her mother, this is her only chance…

–

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Tonight's performance is a story that takes place long, long ago. Our heroine, Princess Cornelia, is torn from her lover, Marcus. She attempts to flee the castle, only to be captured by her father, King Leo. Marcus, having heard of this, crosses swords with the king…" Baku pauses, looking at everyone as all calms down with their clapping. He smirks lightly as he continues now. "And now, Your Royal Majesty, Queen Brahne, Your Highness, Princess Garnet…", looks at everyone else, "…noble ladies and lords, and our rooftop viewers, Tantalus proudly presents 'I Want To Be Your Canary'!" he finishes, then he walks off the stage to let the play begin...

Blank, Zidane, and Cinna are now in the light. Blank stands up.

"Bereft of father! Bereft of mother! Marcus! Thou hast lost even thy love!" Cinna stands as Blank finishes his lines.

"Fortune hath escap'd thee! For what end shalt though live?"

Zidane stands, raising his sword to the air. "For the sake of our friend… Let us bury out steel in the heart of the wreatched King Leo!"

"Aye!" Blank and Cinna yelled. The trio runs onto the stage to face the king character.

Lightening is seen and heard in the background as the trio lines up behind Marcus.

"We shall back thee, kinsmen!"

"Pray, sheathe thy swords! This villain is mine alone!" Marcus said as he watches King Leo.

"Nay, kinsman!" Cinna said. "For I, too, have lost a brother to this fiend!"

"What ho? Out, vermin! Away!" King Leo shouts. "Thou darest bare thy sword before the king!? All who stand in my way will be crush'd!"

Marcus unsheathes his sword, while the others readies their weapons.

"Treacherous Leo, my kinsman's suffering shall not be in vain!" Zidane yells. "For I shall instruct thee in his incomparable pain!" he said as he and the others launches their attack onto King Leo and his henchmen.

The battle begins as Zidane strikes first at King Leo and the two other guys with their SFX magic that is for plays.

"Medeo!" he said and an comet comes crashing down from the sky onto the **'enemy'**, but of course, it doesn't hurt, it's just special effects for the audience. King Leo strikes at Blank.

"Taste steel!" he yelled as the sword hits Blank. Blank parries the sword away after it hits his armor.

"Take this!" Blank counter-attacks with Pyro onto King Leo. Cinna attacks one of the other guys with his hammer, causing little damage, but knocks the guy off-balance. The guy then attacks Cinna with his Clamp Pinch, causing 'major damage' to him, as the audience sees.

Blank now attacks one of the minions, knocking him out of battle for good, at least to the audience. King Leo uses Poly on Blank.

"Thou can't defeat me!" Blank said, attacking the king character. Zidane also charges at the other henchmen, knocking him right out of the battle in one hit.

–

"Oh man, this is the best!" Puck said as he watches the fight scene. "See Vivi? I told you that becoming my slave would pay off."

"But you didn't say anything like-"

"Hey! Where did you kids come from?!" a guard calls out. They were the female soldiers.

"Awhoops! Let's get outta here!" Puck said as he starts running. "What are you waiting for Vivi? Run!"

"Come back here!" one yells as they run.

"Stop right there!"

–

Baku uses Pyro on Blank, still giving the audience a good show.

"Now, feel my fury!" Marcus yells as he charges at **'King Leo'** and hits him with the sword, along with Blank using Pyro on him at the same time. Zidane charges at the Boss and take a swipe at him too. This is where the battle ends, so they back off as though about to attack again. Baku walks away, holding his side. He reaches the stair case that is on the stage.

"Arrg… Grr…" he said as he climbs the stair case. "Thou hast not seen the last of me, Marcus!" he yelled as he walks off the stage.

"Come back!" Zidane yells as he run for the stairs. Blank blocks my way. "Out of the way, Blank!" I said, swinging the sword at Blank. Blank back-flips from the attack.

"Consider this, Zidane! If Prince Schneider were to marry Princess Cornelia, peace would reign over both their kingdoms!"

" 'Tis foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!" Zidane said. He then chases Blank up the stairs. "Aha!" he yell as he swings his sword at him.

"Mph!" Blank said as he ducks the attack. Then he swings his sword at Zidane, who jumps upward to avoid it.

"Aha!" Zidane said again as he swings the sword once more, Blank dunking from the attack, then Zidane aims more downward at his legs after he raises the weapon back up. Blank back-flips over it, then raises his sword and swings it at Zidane, him meeting it with his own sword, clashing them together, making the audience gasp! Zidane swings his sword at Blank once more, Blank avoiding it, of course. Blank jumps off the top and runs off the stage, Zidane following behind him. Then they stop in front of the audience. Blank turns at Zidane, raising his sword in the air.

"En garde!"

"Expect no quarter from me!" Zidane yells, raising his sword as well.

"Take this!" Blank said as he swings his sword. Zidane leans back, then slashes at Blank. But he jumps up, avoiding it. He brings his sword down, Zidane meeting it with his sword, clashing with his. The fight continues on, Zidane avoiding, Blank avoiding, giving the audience a great show. After awhile of it, they stop. "We shall finish this later!" Blank said as he turns around and runs off.

"Come back here!" Zidane yells as he chases after him. The audience all start demanding an encore, including Queen Brahne, all of them throwing gil at them, which the two collects, adding it all to about 1,067!

"Heh, that was a good act we did," Blank said as they rush off.

"Oh yeah! And we were paid for it too!" Zidane said, smiling. "Now let's go and find a disguise!"

–

'_Blank... I finally found you,'_ Zellen thought as she watches from where she hides, which is on top of one of the 'towers' of the 'castle' onstage. _'Haven't you ever wonder where I disappeared to? Of what happened to me? Did... Did you give up, Blank? Or did you stop wondering for whatever job you're doing?'_

She ducks down as everyone begins to disappear backstage, getting ready for Part II of the play. She looks up at Rose, who hides in the beams. Probably the smartest thing to do, for her part. Being cloaked will be noticed, and not being cloaked would bring more attention than the cloak itself. Rose keeps looking back towards the castle, making sure to be hidden from that view. For what, Zellen doesn't know. With Rose, she doesn't want to be seen by Master Kuja, nor by any of the guards - she's well known by appearance.

_'So, they are going into the castle,'_ Rose thought as she watches, blending well with the shadows for the fact that her cloak is black. She hopes that nothing happens, though the feeling that something will is on her mind.


	3. The Chase

_Alone. Confused. Without any memories... The blonde-haired boy with a monkey-like tail wonders through the city of Lindblum, trying to find some food. Feeling faint from no food for two days, he eventually finds that because he has no gil, he would have to obtain the needed food a different way..._

_"Stop! Halt!" the shopkeeper yells as the boy runs for his life, with bread and some fruit in hand. He finds that he's much faster than anyone around, so he manages to shake the guy off by cutting through crowds and down alleyways. He hops onboard of the rail car, panting as he leans against the wall. A giant man climbs onboard before the door closes._

_"Gwahaha, you're a fast runner!" he said, laughing loudly as the boy stares up at him in some fear. "Aw, I'ma not gonna report ya! People gotta eat!" The boy looks at him with some curiousity, instead of fear that he's going to end up with no food and getting punished. "Say, where ya live at, kiddo?"_

_"U-um... Nowhere, sir," 'kiddo' said as he takes a big bite out of the bread._

_"Wha? What 'bout your parents?" the man said._

_"I don't think I have any."_

_"You don' remember? Nothin' at all?" The boy shakes his head. "Huh. Well then, maybe you can stay with us 'til we figure out if there is people lookin' for ya!"_

_"'Us'? Who are you?" the boy said._

_"Why, I'ma Baku, Boss of Tantalus, the infamous daring theives!" Baku said with a big, hearty laugh. "Me group just calls me Boss or Baku **(I prefer Boss)**. What's yer name?"_

_The boy shakes his head. "I don't have one."_

_"God almighty! A boy without 'is name!" Baku said in shock. "Hmph, fine. Let's see, we can't keep callin' you 'Boy' for the rest of yer life... Ah! I got one!" Baku grins as he grabs the boy's hand and shakes it. "You're as of now christened Zidane Tribal!"_

**Chapter III:** The Chase

"Ungh!".

"Argh!"

"Unghaa!"

"Ooof!"

" Hehehe!" It turns out to be Blank laughing, finishing his get-up that he 'borrowed' from the guard. "Finished changing, Zidane?" he asks as Zidane stares at the last thing of his armor, the helmet.

"Yeah, but this helmet… It kinda smells…" Zidane said as he tosses the thing onto the table.

"What are you talkin' about!?" Blank said. "My helmet totally reeks! My armor's way too big… And my back's real itchy… The boots are wet… My gloves are slimy… There's cookie crumbs in my pockets…"

"Okay, I get the picture…" Zidane said, finding that it's too much information for his own good. "You still have the package, right?"

"Don't worry! I won't screwup!" Blank said, then an oglop jumps out of his armor. He goes and grabs it before it could get away.

"Alright! First, I'll go pour some sleep potion into Princess Garnet's teacup!"

"And I've got a special something for the lovely queen!" Blank said. He goes over to the unconscious guards. "Hehehe. They're sleeping so soundly!" he said as he then runs out of the room.

'_And here we go again,'_ Zidane thought as he follows Blank out of the room to the hallway.

Meeting up with Blank again, he looks around, then at the near staircase that leads to the Royal Balcony and Royal Bedrooms.

"According to recon…" Blank begins. "…the royal seats should be right above these stairs!"

'_No duh…' _is Zidane's thought. "Got it!" he then said to Blank. The audience starts applauding loudly from outside.

"Uh-oh! The scene where Marcus sneaks into Cornelia's chamber is about to start!" Blank said. "Let's get this over with before the finale, okay?" he said to Zidane. He nods as he starts running up the stairs. Black is to follow this time.

Nearing the top, the double doors that leads to the royalty bedrooms opens and a white-cloaked person runs out of them, nearly running into Zidane. Luckily, she stops before that happens. Zidane stare at her.

'_'.Hmm? She sure is dressed funny…'_ I thought.

"Umm… Would you please let me pass?" the person asks. Zidane reckons that she sounds like she is royalty.

"Hmm…" Zidane murmures as he tries to examine her face. "Let's see…"

"Is there something on my face?" she said.

"Oh, no. You see…" he begins, trying to think of something. "I just thought maybe you were the one I'd been waiting for all this time."

"Excuse me? You were waiting for me?" she asks, confused.

"Yeah! I've dreamt of meeting you here ever since I was born!" he said.

"Do you mock me?"

"No, of course not…"

"Then, I shall take my leave of you!" she said as she tries to get past him.

"Just a sec!" he said as he blocks her. "Haven't we met before?"

"No, I do not know you…"

"Hmm…" He circles her thoughtfully. "Maybe you're right…" he said as he comes back in front of her. "I'd never let someone as pretty as you get away." Zidane states, smiling. "Say, you wouldn't-"

"Hey, what's goin' on, Zidane?" Blank asks as he appears from the stairs.

"I…" the girl begins. "I must go!" she said as she rushes past Zidane, making him spin on the spot, and past Blank, who's knocked down in the process.

"Who the heck was that?" Blank exclaims.

"Get up, Blank! That was Princess Garnet!" Zidane said as he jumps over him, chasing her.

"Are you serious?" Blank yells as he runs after him.

"Dead serious!" Zidne yells as he goes faster. "Change of plans! I'll get the princess, you try to slow down the captain. They are bound to figure out that the Princess disappeared on them!"

"Gotcha!" Blank said as he heads to another direction, going to join up with the captain of the Pluto Knights once he goes searching.

"Alrigh', now to catch the princess!" Zidane said as he concentrates on chasing.

--

**With the twins, Zorn and Thorn...**

**(Here's something helpful: **Zorn's talking is in _Italic_, and Thorn is in **Bold**. Good enough?

"_We are in trouble!" _Zorn said as Thorn said, **"Trouble are we in!" **as they reach the stairs. They are freaked out about that a certain princess went missing...

"_This is terrible!" _Zorn said to Thorn.

"**Our heads, Queen Brahne will have!" **Thorn said to him.

"_We must hurry!" _**"Hurry, we must!" **they both said as they run up the stairs. Both of them took one route of the stair balcony and run as fast as they could. They meet up with one another at the end.

"_We are in trouble!" _**"Trouble, we are in!" **they said at the same time as they run into the hall side-by-side.

Thorn stops in front of another staircase, but Zorn zips by it and is about to continue on forward.

"**The right way, that is not!" **Thorn yells to his twin brother. Zorn stops and turn around.

"_I know it's not the right way!"_ he yells back.

"**Really, do you?"** Thorn asks

"_I really do!"_ Zorn answers.

"**Wonder, I sometimes do,"** Thorn said thoughtfully.

"_N-Now is not the time to wonder!"_ Zorn said to his brother.

"**Hurry to Queen Brahne, we must!" **_"We must hurry to Queen Brahne!"_ Thorn said at the same time, running up the stairs, Zorn following him. When they reach the top, Thorn goes to his left, towards the double doors.

"_That is not the right way!"_ Zorn yells at Thorn this time

"**N-Not the right way, I know!"** Thorn said when he turns back around.

"_Do you really?"_

"**Know I really do!" **Thorn said.

"_I really wonder sometimes,"_ Zorn said thoughtfully.

"**Th-The time to wonder, now is not!"** Thorn said to his brother.

"_We must hurry and tell Her Majesty!"_

"**Hurry to see Her Majesty, we must!"** they said at the same time as they finally ran to the Royal Balcony.

"_Your Majesty!"_ Zorn said.

"**See the queen, we must!"** Thorn said as he follow his brother. Steiner block their way when they try to get to Queen.

"Her Majesty is busy! Come back later!" he said the jesters.

"Is it an emergency?" Beatrix ask them.

"**An emergency, it is!"** Thorn exclaims as he rush over to the general.

"_A veritable emergency of terrible urgency!"_ Zorn said as he joins his brother.

"Very well. I'll see what I can do," Beatrix said calmly, unlike Captain Steiner, shaking his fist in frustration.

"**Very grateful, we'll be!"**

"_We'll be very grateful!"_ the twins said together.

"Grr! Curse that Beatrix! Always trying to one-up me!" Steiner said angrily to himself.

"So, what exactly is the problem?" Beatrix said to the twins, ignoring Steiner's statement.

"_Her Royal Highness…"_ Zorn starts.

"**Princess Garnet…"** Thorn said after Zorn.

"… **_is in danger!"_** they said together, finishing it.

"I see. Wait right here," Beatrix said, now a bit concerned about this news. Going over to the queen, she stops short and salutes.

"No interruptions! Can't you see I'm watching the show?" Queen Brahne demands.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid Princess Garnet has-"

"Ah, yes…She did leave her seat awhile ago," Queen Brahne said thoughtfully.

"Your Majesty, it seems that Princess Garnet has run off with the Royal Pendent," Beatrix said to the queen.

"Well, of all the… What could she be thinking!?" Queen Brahne said, frustrated now. "General Beatrix!"

"Your Majesty!"

"And Captain… uh… Captain Steiner!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Steiner said as he runs over to the Queen.

"Go find Garnet!" she orders.

"Yes, my queen!"

"At once, Your Majesty!"

Steiner rushes onto the floor connecting the balcony to the Royal Chambers.

"Knights of Pluto!" he yells. "ASSEMBLE!" After awhile of waiting, he finds that nothing happens. "Huh? Where is everybody?!" he said.

"Captain, sir!" Blutzen, Pluto Knight II, said as he and another Pluto Knight run out of the room, with nothing but underwear on them.

"All present and accounted for, sir!" Kohel, Pluto Knight III, said.

"What are you talking about?" the captian yells at them, jumping in frustration. "There's only two of you!" he jumps some more. "Where are the other six?" He runs down the stairs to face them face-to-face. They turn away in shame, not meeting him in the eye. They do not want to face his wrath! "Why, you good-for-nothings! I bring orders from the queen!" I said. "Get dressed and go find Princess Garnet!" The two Knights leave in a hurry to dress, leaving the angry captian in the hall.

After awhile once more, the Knights were still not back out of the room.

'_What the hell are they doing? They should have come back out!' _He runs into the room... And found them talking.

"… So I guess they really did," Blutzen finishes.

"Whoa, really? You always have the latest news!" Kohel said.

"Hey! I thought I told you to look for the princess! What are you doing here?" Steiner shouts at them

"Oh, Captain!" Blutzen said. "It looks like Weimar got together with Barbara at the pub!"

"Why do I have to hear this? I told you nitwits to go search for the princess!"

"Y-Yes, sir!"

"At once, sir!" they said as they rush out of the room.

"**grumble. grumble.** Bunch of idiots…" Steiner murmures to himself as he turns to exit the room. He spots the piece of paper on the wall. It's the list of ranks of the Knights of Pluto.

**I.** Captain Steiner

**II.** Blutzen

**III.** Kohel

**IV.** Laudo

**V.** Dojebon

**VI.** Breireicht

**VII.** Weimar

**VIII.** Haagen

**IX.** Mullenkedheim

Ripping it off the wall to check off each Knight that receives the order from Her Majesty, already doing that with II and III. He walks out of the room… to run into Beatrix.

"Well, well, if it isn't the Captain," she said. "Any luck finding the princess? Or are you too busy finding your own men? I could have sworn that you said that they were the best people that you ever trained, yet they can't find themselves through the castle without getting lost."

"Grr… What do you want Beatrix?"

"Nothing at all. I'm just on my way to search for the princess, since I have already gave the orders to my soldiers, who were all assembled where they were suppose to be," she said. "But now I'll take my leave and go search and find Princess Garnet," she said as she walks of, her hips swaying as she went.

"Grr! Just you wait Beatrix!" Steiner said when she disappears. "I shall find the princess first!" he swears as he runs down the hall and to the stairs.

--

"Master Kuja, you wished for something?" an Alexandria soldier said as she stands on the same balcony, being that the silver-haired man asked for someone to come.

"Have you seen my bodyguard, Lady Rose?" he asks.

"No, sir. Though I've heard from one of the Pluto Knights that she wanted some time alone and went to explore the city."

"Oh, really?" he said with mild curiousity. "Hm. Thank you, my dear lady," Kuja said, the soldier bowing and leaving. _'This is strange, though not unexpected. She usually doesn't wish to be in a crowd. Perhaps something is starting to call to her?'_ he thought, placing a finger on his chin as he thinks. _'Then... Everything is starting to come together. I was beginning to wonder if she **has** any Eidolons destined to come to her first.'_ He smiles a bit devilishly. _'It shall be later on, that the plan will carry forward. Then, 'Master' Garland, you will find yourself defeated by I, your creation, and the supposed failure of experiments.'_ He softly chuckles to himself as he eventually turn back to the play. _'And today is fortunate, for the girl, Garnet, is now 16. She, of course, is first...'_


	4. Manner of Escape

_"But mother, I do not understand why I must learn about Eidolons," the little black-haired girl said as Queen Brahne watches Doctor Tot and her daughter read the book about Madeen Sari, summoners, and Eidolons. "I mean, it is interesting to know about, but-"_

_"My dear, it's best to expand your knowledge to all things!" Queen Brahne said with a gentle smile. "Besides, your father do enjoy having his daughter learn something that he has not until later on in life. Being the future queen of Alexandria means knowing the people, even outside of the city, or the continent! You'll never know, it can be useful later on in the furture."_

_"I understand, mother," the girl said with a smile. Queen Brahne lays a hand on the girl's head, smiling even more._

_"Now, you must continue with the lesson, Garnet!"_

**Chapter IV:** Manner of Escape

After the encounter with Beatrix, Steiner runs off to the stairs, looking for all the blasted knights. One happened to run into him.

"Yes, sir! I'm looking, sir!" Dojebon, Pluto Knight V said before the captain could even open his mouth to order him as he jumps up and continues running, looking everywhere.

_'At last! A Knight that takes his job seriously!'_ Steiner thought to himself as I runs into the right room. There stood Pluto Knight IX, Mullenkedheim, looking at the food with longing.

"Awww... I'm so hungry!" he said when Steiner told him to look for Princess Garnet.

"Wimps like you are the reason nobody relies on men in Alexandria!" Steiner yells at him as he jumps up and down a few times in frustration. "Bite the bullet, you worthless grub!!"

"Whatever, Captain. I'm so hungry..."

_'And there are those who shouldn't even be considered men...'_ the captain thought in frustration as he now run out of the room, down the stairs, and into the left room, which is near the staircase. The room was actually one of the libraries. There, Laudo, Pluto Knight IV stood by one of the cases of books, looking at all the titles. He spots Steiner.

"You see, I never wanted to be in the military. I just wanted to write fantasy novels..." He then runs up to Steiner. "Captain, please! Let me quit the Knights of Pluto!"

"Nitwit! You just joined us!" Captain Rusty yells at him, disturbing the readers nearby, though they don't try to shush him or Laudo. "Now, go find the princess, soldier!"

"Waaahhh!" Laudo cries as he rush out of the library. Steiner shakes his head out of headaches that were all too familiar...

At the docks, he searches for other Knights. Then a loud cheer was heard from the crowd watching the play.

"What!? The play seems to be a hit! But if we fail to find the princess before the curtain falls, Her Majesty will be most displeased... And we will be the laughingstock of Beatrix and her retinue!" Steiner said loudly. "I must hurry!" Running around the fountain, he happens to find Pluto Knight VIII, Haagen, sitting by the water's edge, very relaxed.

"Sitting here watching the water always brings peace to my soul," he said when he notices the captain. "Care to have a seat, Captain?"

"Now is not the time! By order of Her Majesty, we must go serach for Princess Garnet!" he said, making it plain and clear to the knight that they don't have time for nonsense.

"WHAT? This calls for immediate action!" the Pluto Knight yells as he jumps up with attention. "Fair princess, be not afraid! Haagen is on the trail!" Then he runs off to the right tower, yelling, "Feel my fury!!!"

_'Definitly will be on my most reliable list,'_ Steiner thought with satisfaction as he heads for the left tower. The right tower, though Haagen is checking it, is closed to all. At the enterance of the tower, the good captain found Weimer, Pluto Knight VII, talking to one of the female soldiers.

"Hey, let's go to Treno. Just the two of us."

"Hmmm... Let me think about it."

"You there! Stop that immediatly! Go search for Princess Garnet!" Steiner shouts.

"Yes, sir! At once, sir!" he said as he ran off to the docks. Steiner runs into the tower and up the stairs.

Around and around he went, his breathing turning into short, gasping pants. About two cases of stairs did he meet someone. Breireicht, Pluto Knight VI.

"I'm so tired," he said as he stops and bend forward, panting heavily. He then notices Steiner as he catches up. "Oh! Captain Steiner, do you climb this tower for exercise, too?"

"No! No! No! I'm searching for Princess Garnet! Is the princess at the top of this tower or not!?"

"I want to reach the top, but at my age, I get so short of breath."

Steiner sighs in frustration as he speed past the knight to the top. By the time that he reached outside, his breathing is ragged.

"Whew... Fatigue rears its ugly head." He shakes his head in anger. "No! I must persevere! The princess must be found!" he said loudly as he starts to run again. Then something catches my eye...

On the other tower beside where he have stood, there's some blonde guy, chasing Princess Garnet around and around the top of the tower. Steiner returns over to the side to take a closer look.

"Wait! Over there! It's Princess Garnet!" And starts jumping. "Being hounded by brigands! Fear not, Princess! Your Knight is coming!" He searches frantically for some way over...

Garnet climbs onto the side of the tower after a few more minutes of running, facing Zidane. After the two stares at one another, Garnet falls backwards all of the sudden. Zidane runs to the side, finding that Garnet swinging towards the ship on a banner line. Steiner nearly went over the edge - literally - once Garnet started falling. Zidane grabs another banner and follows after the princess. Steiner mimics the both of them, tying it around his waist, then zooming after them. Garnet and Zidane lands on the canopy that's above the band. But poor Steiner circles around from the limitation of the banner, flies off the line, then went SPLAT into the tower. His leg twitches as he lays there, half inside, the other half outside. He's definitely most displeased when Beatrix found him in that ridicilus position.

"Steiner, what the hell are you doing there? You're supposed to be searching for Her Highness!"

"Shut up..."

Meanwhile, Zidanes lands near the band, who knows him all too well to be even startled.

"Huh? Where'd the princess go?"

"Whoa!" Garnet yell as she lands on top of him.

"Oof!" he cries out from the impact. "Owww..." Garnet runs off from Zidane, towards the left of the building. As Zidane tries to regain his wind, Garnet runs back, knocking down all the members of the band, jumping over Zidane, and into the room. Zidane stands up and chases the princess into the room.

Garnet zips by Ruby, who she knocks down.

"Whoa! Whut in tarnation?" She stands back up. "Hold yer horses, there!" she said as she marches over to Garnet. "What kinda cattle you chasin', darlin'? You should as least say yer sorry!"

"Please pardon me. I was in a hurry, you see..."

"And here I am, fixin' to get ready fer my big enterance!"

Then Zidane run in, going up to Ruby and the princess.

"Hey Zidane! Did you see the way she hit me!? This cowgirl's wilder than a buckin' bronco!" Ruby complains to Zidane.

"Just let me talk to her, Ruby!"

"Come again, pardner?" Ruby said, making Zidane back up. "Did ya hear what I sayin'?"

Garnet makes her escape down the stairs.

"Hey!" Zidane yells at her. "Ruby! We'll talk later!" he said to Ruby, now running AGAIN after Princess Garnet down the stairs.

Garnet finally stops, Zidane stopping behind her too.

"Whew... Well, it looks like you've finally made up your mind." _'Wow. We really had to improvise. But hey, we got her!'_ Garnet turns around to face him.

"Do you... do you work on this theater ship?" she asks.

_'Aww... So she figured it out, huh?'_ Zidane thought as he rubs the back of his head.

"As you have no doubt suspected... the truth is that... I am actually..." She removes her hood, revealing her face at last. "... Princess Garnet Til Alexandros, heir to the throne of Alexandria."

_'Yup, I was right all along!'_

"I have a favor I wish to ask of you..."

_'What's this about?' _Zidane thought before Garnet grabs both of his hands. "I wish to be kidnapped... right away."

"H-Huh? I don't... I mean..." Zidane stutters.

**KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK**

"Princess! Where are you?!"

"Please... They've come for me!" Garnet said as she places the hood back up.

"Aha... So that's what's going on..." Zidane said. "Alright! Leave them to me!" he said with confidence, slapping his fist into his chest.

"Thank you. You have my gratitude."

Zidane kneels down onto one knee. "Alright then, Your Highness!" He bows his head as he places a hand over his heart. "I shall hereby do my best to kidnap you!"

Then Cinna bursts in from the other room, causing Garnet to jump behind Zidane.

"What're you two doin'? Come on, this way!" he said.

"Don't worry, Princess. It's my friend Cinna!" Zidane said to Garnet.

"Oh, really?" she said, relaxing a whole lot more. "I am sorry. You startled me."

"Well, with a face like his, I'd be pretty shocked, too!"

"Man, that hurts! I wash up every morning, you know!

**KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK**

"Princess?"

"This way!" Cinna said as he waves to the room he came out of.

"Alright, we'll follow you!" Zidane said as he and Garnet quickly follow Cinna.

As soon as they got in, Steiner clanks into the room.

"Princess?" He walks a little bit more in. "Princess..." Then in the center. "Princess!" To the other end of the room. "Princess...?" Then over to the left. "PRINCESS?" Back to the middle of the room. "Princess?"

A Pluto soldier suddenly pops into the room.

"Where have you been?" Steiner demands, outraged that most of his Knights are somewhere else, doing whatever!

"Sir! I'm sorry, sir!" the knight answers.

"Princess!"

--

"Hey, Cinna! This is a dead end!" Zidane said as he close the door behind him.

"Hehehe. I thought this might happen..." Cinna said as he goes over to the table. One stomp, yelling, "Open!" The table flips up onto its side, causing Zidane to jump. "Sesame!" Cinna continue, stomping again, causing the trap door underneath the table to open, leading right to the engine room. "So I set up this emergency hatch!"

**KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK**

"Princess!" they hear behind the door, where the sound of clanking armor is heard after they entered the room.

"Come on! Jump inside!" Cinna said as he jumps down. Garnet jump as well, Zidane following her example.

Steiner busts through the door as soon as they were through the hole. He nearly went down himself had he kept running. The soldier follows him inside.

"The princess must be down there!" Steiner said, about to jump.

"I-I'll go first, sir!" the soldier said as he jump before Steiner could. But he gets stuck in the entrance, on his back, because of his armor.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Steiner demands.

"Captain, sir! I'm stuck, sir!" the soldier said as he struggles to get out of the trap.

"Grrrr! Blast it!" Steiner said as he rushes out of the room, having to find another way into the engine room.

After a few minutes, the soldier stops moving and watch the retreating captain.

"Hehehe. He bought it!" he said, laughing.

--

"Tell me again of why you wish to go to the engine room?" Rose said to Zellen, who is halfway through the door to the engine room.

"Hey, I gotta check! If you don't wanna come, go back to the beams above the stage and watch for soldiers, or something," Zellen said as she looks at Rose. "I'll be back out, of course!"

"Alright," Rose said with a nod, then looking up and leaping onto the lowest beam. She isn't going to argue.

_'Maybe Blank's in here,'_ Zellen thought as she fully enters, closing the door behind her. _'No harm in looking, as long as I don't try to do anything TOO extreme...'_ she continues saying in her head, walking further into the room.


	5. Captain 'Schneider'

_"What a show!" a young man said as he follows his parents. He's now 14, going into teenager hood. "Mom, Dad, thank you for this birthday surprise!"_

_"Nothing too good for you, dear," his mother said with a laugh, beaming at her son. "Alexandria is always the best with having excellent preformances."_

_"Very true," the father agrees. "Even with all the soldiers around to be nervewrecking, it's entertainable."_

_"I think that the military is well-maintained, even if most are of women."  
_

_"Now what do you mean by that?" his mother said, laughing. She finds it amusing._

_"Nothing at all! I just thought until now that being a soldier is a man's work. But I guess I'm wrong on that, huh?"_

_"It's quite alright, dear. You couldn't catch me in that armor, anyhow, so there are some women who prefer dresses to outfits as they wear." They hear thundering, making them look up. "Oh dear, it's about to rain."_

_"We'll take the short-cut back to our airship."_

_As they keep walking, now through a seemingly-deserted alley, they now start to hear additional footsteps to theirs. Both the mother and the son shrugs it off, but the man begin to tense. He knows that it's a petty thief._

_"Dad? What's wrong?"_

_"Freeze! Don't move, or ya'll get this here sword through yer chests," the thief threatens, making all three of them halt even their breathing._

_"Look, you... What do you want, money?" the father said as he slightly turns his head._

_"That'sa right, all the dough, as well as that lady's jewelery. Ya better do that quick-like, or the little man gets it first." The teen gets probed in the back, making him yelp._

_"Don't you DARE touch my son!" the man yells, lunging at the thief. A struggle goes on as the sword is held over the heads of the two men, one trying to take it away, the other trying to stab him. The other hand suddenly dives into his vest, pulling out a knife. Before the man could do anything, the thief stabs him multiple times, in the chest and stomach. The sword clatters away from them both, as the man lets go and the thief lost his grip on it._

_"RUN!" the woman yells at her son as she rushes at them with the dropped sword, slashing at the other man. He deflects it with ease, as the teen runs to the nearest alleyway break-off, falling and trembling as his mother takes on the thief-turned-killer. He hears a scream, then the sound of spluttering on the ground as the body follows it. The murderer hastily stuffs the money bag and a necklace into his collection bag, taking off in one direction. The rain finally starts to pour down, as the boy's feet picks him off the ground and takes him automatically until he stands in front of his parents._

_"...Mom... Dad..." Tears starts to come out of his eyes as he falls to his knees. "Mother! Father! No, don't leave me alone!" He clutches at his mother's hand, crying into it. He stays there as it continues to rain. After a long while, he stops sobbing as he slowly lowers the hand. "I swear... Mom, Dad, I swear that I'll somehow make you proud of me. And I, Adelbert Steiner, WILL have revenge against all thieves, murderers, and unlawful people who wish to harm others!"_

**DISCLAIMER  
**Just a reminder - I don't own FF9.

**Chapter V:** Captain 'Schneider'

Jumping down the hole and onto the engine, then the boards of the floor, Zidane chuckles. Garnet turns and look at him, wondering what's so funny.

"Wow, you're really athletic, Princess. I think I'm falling for you!" Zidane said with a goofy grin.

"This is nothing. I have been training to escape the castle, after all," Garnet states.

"What a waste..." Zidane said thoughtfully to himself, mostly. "If only you weren't a princess..."

"We have no time for idle banter. Come, let us move on!" Garnet said with a impatiant sigh, turning around and taking off after the rushing Cinna. Zidane follows with little effort, easily catching up.

_'Did I just hear something?'_ Zellen thought as she just enters the room that has a sliding pole in the middle of the room. Just as Zidane, Garnet, and Cinna bursts into the room, surprising Zellen completely, Steiner comes sliding down the pole (of course, surprising Zellen even MORE, as well as the others)

"Aha!" Steiner said in triumph. "Princess! I, Steiner, have come to save you!" Garnet tries to go out of the room to the engine room again, but gets blocked-off by the only 'Knight' that 'helped' Steiner.

"You needn't worry, Your Highness!" he said.

_'That voice... Is it...?'_

"Good work! This will be remembered as the Pluto Knights' finest hour!" Steiner booms.

"Hehehe," the 'Knight' chuckles with mischief. "Just relax, Princess. We'll get you outta here!"

"WHAT?" Steiner yells. "You're not one of my Knights!"

"Blank...?" Zellen said softly as Zidane, Cinna, and the knight, which turns out to be Blank, stands inbetween Steiner and Garnet.

" You can just..." Zidane starts.

" ... leave the princess..." Cinna follows.

" ... to us!" all three said at the same time.

Captain Rusty attacks Zidane, who barely manage to bring up his daggers to block it, Steiner angrly shouting, "Villains! How dare you trick the princess!"

"Just shut-up!" Blank said as he pushs him back with his sword against his armor, away from Zidane. To Blank's surprise, the armor's still in one piece, since it looks bound to come apart from attacks like that. Zidane quickly recovers from the arm-shaking blow and goes after Steiner. He meets sword, which pushes him back. Steiner charges at Blank next.

"No you don't!" Zellen yells as she interfers, using her two daggers to knock thw sword and Steiner to the side.

"...Zellen!"

"Nice to see you remember me after all..."

Steiner switch attacks onto Cinna, who gets hit in the shoulder by Steiner's sword. He groans loudly from the dull throbbing in the shoulder.

"You okay?" Zidane yells at him as he paries with Steiner once more, daggers clashing with sword.

"Only a bruise and cut," Cinna said casually. He charges with his hammer up high, but the attack only bounces off the armor. He switches his aim at the face now. Rusty better be glad of helmets, because the hammer did hit skin, but the helmet prevents it from doing anything short of breaking cheek bones or the nose. Steiner nonetheless starts howling and holding his face. He glares through his fingers and raises his sword with both hands once more, which begins to glow - in Blank and Zellen's direction.

"I'll never give up!" he yells as he attacks with Armor Break. Blank covers Zellen, but finds he doesn't get hurt, merely his armor falls apart... and the oglops making their escape. "N-NO!" Steiner cries out in disgust as he runs around with a oglop on his face. "I hate oglops!"

"Oglops are the worst!" Blank yells out as one lands on his head.

"Why the hell did you have these things in your armor, Blank!" Zellen yells as she dances around, shaking oglops off of her head and shoulders.

"Get these oglops offa me!" Cinna shouts as he runs from the oglops that's bound and determine to get on him. Zidane and Garnet are the only ones not running around like chickens with no heads.

"Now our chance! Come on!" Zidane said to Garnet as they run past the screaming people and into the plateform room.

Up above, on stage while the battle was raging below...

"Tonight, I shall finally see my daughter Cornelia betroth'd to Prince Schneider," King Leo on stage said as the play continues on, Rose watching from above out of boredom. "And then Prince Schneider and his kingdom will be mine! Gwahahahaha!"

_'Such an idiotic laugh...'_ Rose thought as two of the 'king's henchmen' came onstage, dragging Marcus to face the king on his kness.

"Your Majesty!" Zenero said.

"We have caught an intruder!" Genero said after.

"Why, my poor Marcus," King Leo said as he stands before the kneeling Marcus. He turns around and pace away a bit. "Hark, lad. No matter how much thou dust treasure Cornelia... no matter how deeply she might believe she doth love thee... never shall I see her marry a peasant such as thee!" He turns back around to face Marcus to stare him in the eyes.

A bell rings from the tower.

"You yon bell strikes three..." he continues as the ringing continues. "Under the axe thou shall be!"

And now meanwhile, underneath the stage...

Zidane looks at the four platforms that rises to the stage above, Garnet following him to the control panel.

"What now? We cannot go any further!" Garnet said in despair.

"Hmmm..."

Cinna then enters the room, flustered from his excersise. "Zidane! Get on Number Two!" he orders as he push Zidane away from the controls.

"Okay!" Zidane said, a bit annoyed from the shove, but went to the indicated plateform that was on the other side of the room, next to Number One. "This way, Princess!"

"Princess!" Steiner cries out as he bursts into the room just in time to watch both Garnet and Zidane going up. He shoves Cinna aside and got on Number Three, which begins to rise up when Cinna bumps into the controls. Cinna can only watch as he tries picking himself off the floor and panel.

"They go up?" Blank said as he and Zellen manage to escape the invasion of the oglops in the other room.

"Yeah!"

Now back onstage

"Furthermore!" King Leo continues on with his LOOOONG speech of the century. It's then Zidane and Garnet come up from the floor. "(P-Princess Garnet?)"

_'The cloaked girl, I bet it is Garnet 'Til Alexandrios,'_ Rose thought to herself as she stays hidden above.

"(Guys! Just improvise!)" Zidane whispers as Steiner pop out of the floor as well.

"Ho? What's all this?" he said loudly as he stares at the audience, who are wondering if this is part of the show.

Marcus pushes the two guards from him and ran over to Garnet. "Cornelia!"

"(Um...)" said the surprised Garnet.

"(Marcus is Cornelia's lover,)" Zidane explaines.

"Oh, Marcus!" Garnet said as she approaches Marcus, playing her new part.

"(Yeah, you're doing great!)"

"(Ahaha. I have studied drama, you know.)"

"(Okay, guys. Let's keep going. Brahne's still watchin', after all,)" Baku said. All of the Tatulus members gives a unnoticable salute to him, then continues on with the show.

_'What the hell are they doing the princess, kidnapping her? Figures,'_ Rose thought while rolling her eyes. _'Though I doubt they wanted this onstage.'_

"Oh, Marcus! I missed you so!" Garnet said as she and Marcus embrace each other. Steiner continues to look and stare at the audience, greatly confused. "I wish never to leave thy side. Prithee, lead me from this place!"

"See, King Leo? Thou shouldst give them thy blessing!" Zidane said. Leo walks away, looking like he's in deep thought.

"Never!" he said as he stops near Steiner. "Never leave his side, thou sayest?" he demands. "Foolish banter! I'll not allow it!" He turns to the flabbergusted Steiner, who has no clue about what's going on around him. "Cornelia shall marry none other than this man - Prince Schneider!"

Steiner finally turn his head at Leo, who pats him on the shoulder. "Is that not so, Prince Schneider?"

"M-Marry the princess?" he said, fully turning around to face Leo. "Me?"

"Aye! And this traitorous crew, I will put to death!" King Leo states.

Marcus and Zidane quickly attacks Zenero and Benero with punches and kicks.

"Ooof!" Benero cries out., Zenero following with his, "Oww!" " Too many of them!" Benero shouts as he rushes off the stage.

"Run away!" Zenero follows Benero's example and goes the other way. Leo walk over to 'Cornelia', who, doing her part, backs away and kept distance between them.

"Pray, sweet daughter, come home to the castle with me."

"Nay, Father! I shan't return!"

"Cornelia... Trouble me no more. This wedding is for thine own welfare. Be mindful of that."

Marcus comes forward. "Not if I can help it! Now is my moment of vengeance! For my parents, and for my love Cornelia..." He pulls out his sword out and charge. "I shall cut thee down!"

Garnet, playing as Cornelia very well, runs in front of the attack, taking the 'stab' for her 'father'. "Ngh!" she yells out as she falls backwards.

"No... Cornelia!" Marcus said as he backs away from her fallen form.

Here, Steiner's now freaking out, throwing his arms into the air.

"Mar... cus, forgive me. I still... love my... father..." Cornelia said faintly.

_'And the drama continues,'_ Rose thought.

"Cornelia!"

"Princess!" Leo and Steiner shouts, Steiner falling onto his knees, Leo doing the same.

"Prithee, forgive my selfishness, Father, and spare my sweet Marcus..." Garnet said as she 'took her last breath and dies'.

Steiner is now in absolute despair at this point, now on all fours, head bowed as he cries.

"What have I done?" Marcus said. "Am I never to hear her loving voice again? Am I cursed never again to feel her soft touch? O, cruel fate! Thou hast robbed me of all I treasure!" he cries out as he raises his sword into the air and 'stab' himself in the chest. "Ngh!"

"Marcus!" Zidane yells as he covers his face from view, actually hiding a smirk on his face. He quite enjoys playing a role in this act.

--

"Oh, my!" the queen said as she starts crying in her handkerchief. "This year's show is splendid!" She seems to try and block off her tears from spilling. "Waaaaaaa! Why did she have to die? Why?" she yells out, slightly scaring the soldiers around her. An new person merely looks at her with an eyebrow raised, his mouth unseen behind the mask he wears. She stops long enough to notice that Garnet is still not in her seat. "(Now, where could Garnet be?)" she asks herself before continuing to cry. "Boo-hoo-hooo!"

_' Honestly, she's overemotional...'_ Kuja thought with a sigh as he heard her crying all the way from his balcony. _'But the play was indeed enjoyable, though it went a bit differently from the book. I guess some of the messed up and had to invertise. All-in-all, a very good play,'_ he continues on with a smirk. But something about the white-hooded girl was bugging him... And Rose is still not back. She has been looking forward to the play, at least that was what he thought.

--

"Wow, what a show!" Puck said as he and Vivi stand where the fight scene took place.

"Yeah, so sad..." Vivi said as he wipes some tears away.

"I'm glad we climbed all the way overe. How 'bout you, huh?" Puck asks as he looks at Vivi, then past him. "Uh-oh, look out!" Puck yells out as he run the other way. Vivi looks, then follows Puck as fast as he can, with two Pluto Knights after them.

"Stop, you!" Haagen yells.

"Come back, trespassers!" Weimar shouts after Vivi and Puck. The two circles around a pillar and goes back outside, the soldiers slipping on the waxy floor of the castle. Back outside, Vivi trips over a loose slab, causing Puck to look back at him.

"Fool! I'm outta here!" he said as he runs even faster. Vivi quickly stands back up and runs for it, hearing the sounds of loud footsteps and clanking armor.

"Fury!"

"Come back here!" Haagen and Weimar shouts at the same time.

--

"Forgive me!" Leo shouts out as he 'cries' over Cornelia's body.

"Princess!" Steiner cries.

Then Vivi runs onstage behind Steiner, looking back at the persuing knights. "Leave me alone!" he yells at them as he runs past Zidane (knocking him down, as well) and jumps over the 'dead' Marcus.

"Stop!"

"Come back here!" they yell at him as he goes around Baku and over Garnet's body. Zidane stands up as he stares at the boy in a pointy hat. Rose from up above stares in shock at the little black mage.

_'But... I... thought...'_ she thought as she is greatly confused about the mage.

"Don't come any closer!" Vivi warns them before summoning two fireballs with his black magic and launching the magic at them. Unfortantly, one lands on Garnet's cloak, the other hitting a metal panel on the wall and at the girl in the rafters. Rose leaps off the rafter beam before it even gets close to her.

"Look out, flying people!" Zidane yells as he dives away from her landing spot. Rose does a front flip before landing on the ground, clutching at the hood of the cloak to prevent it from revealing her face.

"Ow! That's hot!" Garnet jumps up, trying to pull off her cloak. With that done, she's now revealed to all of who she is. And Steiner stops blabbering like a baby. Marcus sits up and rub the back of his neck as he looks around, staring at the girl who came from the rafters.

"Zidane! It's time!" Baku said as he runs off the stage, though he wonders how the hell the strange girl got on without anyone noticing.

"Princess Garnet! Let's get outta here!" Zidane said as he runs over to Garnet.

"What... what is going on?" Steiner said as he stands up, looking at the mage, to Garnet, to the crew of the ship, and to the newcomer.

"Steiner! Don't follow me anymore!" Garnet commands.

"Yeah, like that will work..." Zidane heard the other girl say to herself.

"Captian, sir! We await your orders, sir!" Haagen said as he and Weimar turns to their captain.

"Hmmm... Well... Umm... Errr..." Steiner stutters.

"An idiot, as always..." the girl said. Zidane has to admire her to just continue throwing insults at the meanest captain of Alexandria. From what it sounds like, she knows him.

"Princess! I'm afraid I cannot comply!" Steiner said at last, not hearing any of the insults thrown at him.

At this point, Marcus stands up and comes to Zidane, Garnet, and the newcomer's side, ready to fight.

"Stubborn as always, aren't you?" Garnet said.

"Come on, Princess! Let's ditch Sir Rustalot and get outta here," Zidane said as he and Garnet runs over to the fallen Vivi, Marcus doing the same.

"Princess, wait!"

"Hey, kid... You okay?" Zidane asks.

"Y-Yeah. I just tripped, that's all..."

"Princess, I cannot allow you to go!" Steiner said, his comrades lining up behind him.

"Honestly, you thinks you could fight anyone? You couldn't fight your way out of a wet paper bag..." the newcomer said as she cross her arms and roll her eyes, careful to not reveal her face.

"Who are you, anyway? And how did you get on this ship?" Marcus said suspisiously.

"Rose, but we have no time for formalities."

"I've heard you, intruder! Seize them at once!" Steiner orders, glaring at Rose.

" Yes, sir!"


	6. Evil Forest

_"You've learned much to being a ninja, son," a man said as he and his son stand in the middle of the living room in the building that they called home - It may be a run-down place, but home all the same. "That makes me proud."_

_"I try," the teenager said. "But father, why did you wake me up in the middle of the night? Is it more training?"_

_"No. It is now time to see if you are truly a ninja." With no warning, he leaps at the teenager ninja, slashing his shuiken. By pure reaction, the young ninja leaps back and blocks it with his large sword._

_"W-what?"_

_"If you want to live, fight me! I won't hold back because you are my son. No mercy!"_

_With no choice, the young ninja fights back, blocking and attacking when he can. The battle between goes on for nearly an hour, wearing out the guy. But with determination to live, he finally manages to beat his own father and keeps him from continuing to fight by holding his sword against his neck._

_"It's over, I've beaten you," he said as he pants._

_"You know that it's not over until you finish me off."_

_"Huh? B-but father, I can't kill you."_

_"Do you want to keep your honor? Then do so by killing me!"_

_"Father... why?"_

_"Son, if you don't, I **will** kill you when you least expect it. I'm not giving you a choice. To be a true ninja, you will become one by killing me, your mentor."_

_"..."_

_With sudden movement, the father rolls away from the sword and turns, preparing to throw his shuiken. The teenager immediatly reacts, thrusting his sword forward... and through his father's chest, time seeming to halt._

_"...Well... done... Koroku..." he said as Koroku pulls his sword out, the body falling to the ground. 'Now... I am out of that man's power... And Koroku... is stronger than ever...' he thought before falling into the darkness._

_Koroku drops his sword and falls to his knees, looking at his hands. After awhile, he raises his hands to his neck, and takes the mask that he usually just hangs at. Pulling it forward, then up, he places it around his mouth and nose, where it belongs for now on. He vows to never take it off when in the presence of others, for ninjas in this society are considered non-existent. So he will therefore follow their lead and be of the shadows, where he and others were shoved into. He is now a true ninja._

**Chapter VI:** Evil Forest

The battle onstage starts by Haagen, using his attack on Zidane. Vivi covers him by using his Fire magic, causing Haagen to yell in pain with his armor burning his skin. Zidane attacks at the same time, making the Knight of Pluto fall back and start retreating. Marcus and Zidane attacks him and Weimer again, quickly gaining the advantage of the battle.

"My fury ends here..." Haagen said as he runs for it, leaving Steiner and Weimer to the battle. Vivi launches a Blizzard at the other Knight, freezing him temporarily. As he unfreezes quickly, he tries to attack Marcus, who blocks and counters with Rose at the back.

"I'm gonna be late for my date!" he yells as he follows Haagen's example. Garnet uses her Cure magic on Zidane as Steiner stands there in a loss of words.

"H-Hey! Come back here!" the captain yells. With no response, he attacks Rose. She quickly evades it with sudden speed, causing Steiner to nearly trip. Zidane clanks his dagger against Steiner's helmet, only hearing a dull ringing in his ears now. " Cowards! Attacking while your opponent is down!"

"Yeah, like you would not do the same," Rose responds as she jump away from Steiner's swing of his sword. "Too slow. Your anger blinds you."

"I will not take advice from a cowardly theif!"

While Steiner is distracted, Zidane and Marcus closes in from both sides and brings down their blades onto his armor. Only Marcus's sword manages to get through the rusty armor, cutting his arm severely.

"Bah! Only a flesh wound!" Steiner says as he holds his arm.

All throughout the battle, the crew of the Prima Vista were preparing to launch.

"Stabilizers configured!" Cinna said as he turns from the levers and gauges, facing Baku.

"Good!"

"Engine room is good to go!" Blank declares as he enters the room from above.

"Alright!" Baku said happily as they did their salute. "We're movin' out!" he announces as he turns to the conrtol panel.

"Roger that!" said Cinna as he goes back to work, and Blank heading downstairs.

"It's about time!" he said as he went.

Queen Brahne is not happy with this arrangement as she watches from her balcony as the ship begin to rise.

"Fire! Fire the hooks!" she orders as the soldiers load the cannons. With loud explosions, the hooks flies through the air and buries themselves into the wood of the ship, the sounds of the chains rippling. Everyone jumps out of the way, Zidane having to pull Garnet out of the way. Rose backflips away and crashes into one of the walls as the ship jerks suddenly, Vivi doing the same, being small. Zidane turns his gaze at the enraged queen.

_'She's being ridiculious of getting the princess back! She could have killed her!'_

"The Bomb, launch it!" the queen cries as the main cannon comes forth. With a crack of thundering explosion, the cannon fires at command. What seems like a metal ball breaks apart to reveal a flaming creature. Steiner is quite oblivious to it as he take a potion and gets back on his feet, attacking Marcus while his guard is down. All the while, the others are watching the giant Bomb float behind the captain.

"Hey! Look behind you!" Zidane yells as he blocks Steiner's sword for Marcus and retreats, pulling Marcus along.

"I'll not fall for such an old trick!" Steiner roars as he gives chase and clashes his sword against Zidane's daggers. Zidane pushes him back and retreats even further away from the Bomb, which just grows twice its size.

"Please, Steiner! Behind you!" Garnets begs as she backs up as well. Rose stands back up from her momentary daze from the collision with the wall, then stares at the growing Bomb. Vivi does the same thing, being it's the first time to see one. Marcus and Zidane continues to block all of Steiner's attacks, stopping him from advancing onto them.

The Bomb grows once more, twice its new size now. And Steiner **_still_** doesn't notice it.

"Surrender at once!" Steiner yells with his cry of battle, rushing at Rose this time and hitting her in the shoulder. Rose and Vivi pushes him back, Rose with her swallow and Vivi with his rod.

"It's a bomb!" Vivi cries as he starts to back up against the wall.

"I will NOT fall for that trick!"

"Then you are really being stupid," Rose said as she starts to run, pushing Vivi from the Bomb as fast as she could.

"It's gonna blow!" Marcus yells as he ducks for cover, along with everyone else near the Bomb, which grows AGAIN.

This is only then did Steiner feel strong heat waves behind him. He turns and nearly soils himself as he spins and fall on his ass, scared out of his mind.

With the Bomb's explosion, Queen Brahne thinks that the ship is down and out. But as she watches, the ship emerges out of the smoke. The remaining chain dangling from the ship crashes into the buildings below. Even the ship bounces off of them, then up into the air again, trying to stay airborn. Garnet keeps a hold onto one of the harpoons, watching her mother as the ship drifts out of the city. Brahne snaps her fan in half as she glares at the ship - and her daughter - exit Alexandria and over Evil Forest, into the Mist.

--

"We're gonna crash!" Cinna shouts as the crew begins to panic, running in all directions and the alarms blaring in their ears. Blank runs down the stairs and out, trying to tell everyone to prepare themselves for the impact, but ends up crashing into the floor below. Zellen barely manages to grab onto the beam that is half-way out of the ship's window. Zenero and Genero falls from the upper deck into the control room.

"No frickin' duh!" Baku shouts as he clutches the steering wheel, praying to any god that exists to save them.

"Watch out!" The ship descends from the sky and into the forest, throwing Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, Steiner, and Rose off board. A giant boom is heard throughout the forest as fire roars to life over the trees.

"The idiots!" Blanks cries, thinking that they jumped off.

"Gah!" Zellen's support shakes loose from the ship's collision with trees, pulling itself and her out of the ship itself.

"Zellen!"

--

"Garnet..." Brahne said softly as she fans herself with a spare fan. "I never imagined you would do such a thing. Perhaps you're not such a helpless little girl anymore..." The twins comes over behind her. "Zorn! Thorn!" she yells over her shoulder. "Is our little experiment ready?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. It is combat ready!" Zorn squeaks.

"Easily terminate Princess Garnet, it can, Your Majesty."

"I need her alive!" Brahne bellows as she turns to them. They bow out of fear. "Bring her back at once!"

"Your Majesty, may I make a suggestion?" the man with the face mask on the balcony said at last while stepping forward. Short spikey hair that goes over the tied cloth on his forehead (left-over cloth bandana is knotted at the back and hangs behind him), a mask covering his mouth , nose, and chin, and black/silver clothes of a ninja. "Send me to retrieve the princess."

"Hm... Actually Koroku, I want you to eliminate that monkey, and the crew that were involved in the kidnapping. Once that's accomplished, then bring her back."

"Yes, Your Majesty," he said as he bows, then leaps onto the wall of the balcony, then off, towards where the ship is crashing.

_'So he is still around,'_ Kuja thought, watching him speed off faster than most other creatures across the roofs. _'I wondered what has happened to him. But now, besides his appearance, my little kitty summoner is somewhere in the Evil Forest. Hm... Who knows, it might mean either a good thing or a hesitation to the plans.'_

"Master Kuja!" one of the soldiers said as she walks onto the balcony. "Queen Brahne asks for your presence as soon as you can be available!"

"Carry on," he said airily, use to the whole process now. She salutes and walks away. "I suppose I best see what the fat queen wants," Kuja said as he starts walking off the balcony.

--

"Oww... My back's killin' me," Baku grumbles as he got up from the floor. Cinna stands as well as Baku turns to him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, but the Prima Vista's wasted," Cinna answers.

"Just our luck to crash in this forest..." Baku said as he turns to look outside. "It's gonna get interesting..."

"What do you mean, 'interesting', Boss? I hear no one's ever made it outta here alive."

"Boss!" Benero said as he rushes into the room. "There's fire everywhere! It's outta control!"

"Quit yer whinin' and get it under control!" Baku commands. "And get the wounded outta here!"

"Alright!" Benero said as he does a quick salute before hurrying to tell the others that can still work.

"Get our goods outta here, too: weapons, item, anything we can use!" Baku tells Cinna. "There's no way we can survive if all our stuff is toast."

"I'm on it!" Cinna said as he does the salute, then starts running downstairs.

"And where's the hell is Blank!"

"Lookin' for Zellen!" Cinna manages to answer before getting out of hearing range.

"Zellen's back, huh?"

--

"Urg..." Zidane mumbles as he picks his head up, still empty of any air in his lungs. Taking a few gulps of it, he stands up and dusts himself off. All around is trees, mud, trees... and more trees. The feel of a foreshadowing is all around, so he starts heading for the cliff that has smoke pillaring over the forest. He stares down onto what's left of the Prima Vista, nothing but broken planks and fire. _'This certainly doesn't look good...'_ Zidane thinks grimly as he begin to make his way down the rocks.

Along the way, he finds the cloaked girl on the ship from the rafters, Rose, completely unconscious. Difference is that she doesn't have the cloak on anymore, revealing her completely of her wings, horn, and... tail. Zidane stands there with his mouth open, then shakes his head and walk over to her.

"Hey! Wake up," Zidane says as he shakes her lightly in the shoulder. He gets an instant response - a swipe in the face. "Ow! Enough with the claws!" he cries as he holds his cheek, which now holds three long scratches, bleeding.

"Where are we now?" Rose asks, not even going to apoligize for attacking him.

"I think it's Evil Forest," Zidane said as he offers a hand up. She just ignores it and gets up on her own, her face a bit bruised from impact against rocks, and one apparent broken wing. She winces when she tries to fold it against her back. "So, wow, wings and all that on you. You look pretty good with them!" She ignores the remark as well as she starts for the path down. Her shoulder is still bleeding from Steiner's attack. "Wow, talk about the cold shoulder." He quickly follows the limping girl, reaching the grounds as soon as she did.

It's worse to be up close to the wreckage, with piles of boxes and items all around.

"Phew... I'm beat..." Zidane hears Cinna say as the man picks himself from the ground, still exhausted, to look at what he accomplished in a short amount of time, apparently. "Hurry up and put out the fire!" Cinna yells. "I can't carry 'em all by myself!"

"Yeah yeah yeah..." Zenero said to himself as he carries the conductor over his head. With a heave, he tosses the sleeping man onto the trupetor.

"What the hell are they doin'? The whole ship's gonna burn up!"

"They're lookin' for Garnet... Can't find her anywhere," Zenero answers. "Maybe she fell off... Got squashed under the ship."

"This is great," said Cinna as Zenero heads back inside the ship. "First we kidnap her, then we kill her. We'll hang for sure."

_'The question is, by who?'_ Zidane thinks to himself. Rose hangs back away from the ship, though Zidane doesn't notice as he walks towards Cinna. "Cinna!"

"Zidane, I'm surprised you made it!" he cries in shock. "I can't believe you jumped off! You're nuts, you know that?"

"I didn't jump off. I got thrown out from the impact, as did everyone on top deck." Zidane sighs. "So, is everyone okay?"

"Yeah. We've all got the devil's luck," Cinna said. "But if we don't find Princess Garnet, we're all deat meat."

"Yeah, I know."

"Where'd ya get those scratches?" Cinna asks suddenly, noticing the new addition to Zidane's face.

"Oh, these lovely presents came from that girl..."

"What'cha do now? Other than loose Garnet and jump off deck. And where's that girl anyway?"

"Present," Rose said behind me. Both Zidane and Cinna jump about six feet off the ground from the sudden voice. "For someone who takes on that captain, you get scared easily..."

"Shut up..."

"Whoa, what's with da wings?" Cinna said as he gaps in shock. "Horn and tail, too! What're ya?"

"..." Rose, again, doesn't answer as she start to walk/limp away. She intends both to get away from the questions, as well as find her swallow weapon. She can feel that there's a battle quickly coming.


	7. Spawns of the Forest

_"Keep the cargo tied down! C'mon, can't you understand orders?" a person yells at the crewmen, who never seem to hear them as they continue on with their business. "Feh... Using these puppets are useful in maintaining the ship, but they don't listen to you..." the man grumbles as he walks off, leaving the Black Mages to their work. Many of them are large, but there are some who are a bit short, and those are the prototypes of the line. The bigger ones are what the main soldiers will end up as, while the prototypes are to be eventually forgotten..._

_One such smaller mage is within a crate that looks like a coffin, unaware of the world as of yet. Placed near the railing on the outside of the deck and not even tied down, the airship rocks violently. Strong gusts of wind is beginning to pick up._

"_Hey! Mages, keep the ship from rocking!" a soldier shouts. No one really notices when one of the coffins falls out of stock, break apart, and the little Black Mage plummets over the side of the ship..._

_But by some miracle, a fishing line hooks onto his jacket and pulls him up. The person that saved him, Quan, stares at his 'catch'._

"_This not Mist fish," he said. "Who you?"_

"_..."_

"_Hm..." _**_'Maybe if fatten up...'_**

**DISCLAIMER  
**Uhhh... as usual, don't own FF9... C'mon, does ANYONE expect me to own the company throughout a story all of a sudden? Any more need of disclaimers...?  
Rose belongs to me, Iapis  
Koroku belongs to Kayoni  
Zellen belongs to MoonRhodes

_Aaaaand so far, that is it. For now._

**Chapter VII:** Spawns of the Forest

"WHOOOA!!" Vivi cries as he and Garnet run out of the underground tunnel for their lives. Vivi trips on a root as soon as they got out of there.

"Are you alright?" Garnet asks as she stops and returns to his side, helping him up.

"I-Is it still coming?" Vivi said quietly as they look back at the carven. He backs away when he hears a shrieking sound from it, afraid of the thing that might pop out of there. That's the reason he didn't spot the shadow over Garnet until the very thing drops out of the trees above. " Watch out!"

--

"This has gotta be the worst situation we've ever been in... I don't think the princess made it..." Zidane hears Cinna going on and on as he sets out to the forest.

"Wait up, please," he hears from behind as Rose follows, her white swallow in hand and slipping it into its sheath on her bag.

"Well well well, decided to tag along?" he said with a laugh.

"You are better than the idiots back there," she responds with a silent sigh.

"Still no apology for scratching me?"

"What are you expecting from me? Alright... I apologize for scratching you. Now, should we look for the princess or not and continue wasting time?" she said as she limps ahead. She really have twisted her ankle, and she still hasn't done anything with her shoulder or bruises on her face.

"Looking, looking..." _'Yowch, touchy...'_

They manage to fight their way through goblins and fangs as they approach the dry land of the swamps.

"Looks like it has been a good thing from the warm-ups," Rose said as they reach the area. Vivi is backing away, trembling, and Steiner is yelling at a parasite cage monster that holds Garnet captive. Zellen, who joined up with Garnet as soon as Steiner arrived on the scene, tries hard to attack the monster, but with Steiner swinging his sword around at times, she ends up having to stay away until Steiner stops his actions.

"Sh-She's in trouble..." Vivi said as he falls to the ground, still shaking. Rose rushes over and kneels next to him, and Zidane running over to join Steiner and Zellen, who looks like him for some reason...

_'Think on that later,'_ he thought.

"Release the princess at once!" Steiner shouts.

"Yeah, like it's really gonna listen to you," Zidane said as he readies himself for battling, feeling surprisingly angry at the monster. "Come on!" he challenges the monster. As soon as it attacks them, Zidane begins to glow pinkish-white. It halts the creature in surprise, and Steiner stares at Zidane. His clothes seem to have turn into pink fur as the light subsides.

"Wh-What is that light?" Steiner demands as Rose and Zellen stare in some shock. Rose has never been taught about Trance, so it's to be expected from her...

"I don't know," said Zidane. "Somehow, it raises my power."

"Could it really be Trance...? I've heard of it before!" Steiner said as he switches his attention to the parasite cage. "Trance is induced by a surge of emotion."

Zidane glares at the foe in front of him. "Alright, let's take him!"

"The smartest thing you have said the last hour," Rose said as she rushes forward at the monster, Zidane, Zellen and Steiner following behind. Zidane stabs right into the flesh as Rose jumps ontop and tries to pry the cage open. The tentacles the monsters waves around strikes Steiner and Rose, but Zidane and Zellen dodges, Zidane continuing to stab its side. Zellen raises both of her daggers up as a tentacle slams towards her, Zellen neatly hacking it off. Steiner gets back on his feet and slashes at its right tentacle. Rose, while gathering her muscles to leap, notices how it pauses with its arms touching the cage Garnet is held in. Then a light swirls around them and he is healed and in top condition.

"It is absorbing Garnet's life to heal every wound it gets!" she shouts as she rushes at the waving arms, cutting them as much as she can. When one smacks her in the stomach, she grabs a hold and starts to get thrown around in the air, stabbing it with her cat-like nails, like claws. "Give her a potion while it cannot concentrate, Zellen! I cannot heal her with my magic while being waved around!"

"Got'cha!" Zellen said as she tosses Garnet a potion, which she thankfully catches and drinks. At this point, Rose lets go and lands away on her uninjured ankle just in time, for Zidane glows white again and unleashes his new power, Free Energy, on the monster. It screeches in pain. And it seems that they finally won... Except when it gets back up and jumps back into the branches, taking the princess with it.

"Princess?! PRINCESS!" Steiner shouts as Zidane's Trance wears down and he is back to normal, exhausted.

"What the heck? Where did they go?!" Zidane said angrly as he, Zellen and Steiner looks up into the branches. Rose, who shakes her head to clear it from all the waving around, walks over to Vivi and helps him up.

"You okay?" she asks.

"She's gone..." Vivi whispers, not hearing Rose, as he walks over to the tunnel and stares at it, hoping that the princess hops out of it. "I was too scared to cast any spells... That monster's probably gonna eat her..."

"How could I let this happen?!" Steiner demands of himself, hope practically sucked out of him.

"Don't worry," Zidane said, both Steiner and Vivi looking at him, and Rose and Zellen listening. "She's not dead yet. That monster was only a minion. He's probably gonna take her to his master."

"That means that the princess might still be - Come! We must go find her at once!"

"Vivi, get out of the way!" Rose yells all of a sudden, but another parasite cage drops down and gets Vivi, trapping the little mage in its cage.

"WHOA!" Vivi cries. "Let me go! Help me!" He summons his Fire attack and attacks the plant/animal, making it scream of pain.

"Magic seems effective," Zidane shouts to Vivi. "Keep going!"

Zidane attacks the underside, Steiner the top, and Rose and Zellen the tentacles, keeping it too occupied to consider healing. Vivi summons more Fire after a minute to collect his powers. The monster screams out in pain from the Fire, and Steiner stabs through the stomach.

" Nice!" Steiner encourages Vivi as he pulls the sword out and hacks off an arm. Rose has prepare to attack again, but Zellen finishes off the monster for good by slashing its neck open, green goo-like blood oozing out of its wounds. It collapses onto the ground and the cage opens, allowing Vivi freedom once more. He quickly jumps off of the monster and stares at the monster, which is very still.

"Phew... Th-Thanks..." he said shakily.

"Are you alright?" Zellen asks as she hands another potion to the Black Mage.

"Y-Yeah... I think so," said Vivi as he consumes the potion.

"We better go and find the girl," Rose said as they all catch their breath.

"You insulant - ! You will address her as 'Princess' or 'Her Highness'!"

"Why must I...?" Rose said with not much of question, but statement.

But before Steiner replies, the monster suddenly jumps back to life and a great green cloud releases from it. Zidane and Zellen jumps out of the way in time, but the others inhale it, with Rose stopping her breath in time to only have little of it in her system. Vivi automatically collapes, but Steiner went down with drama.

"UHG!!!" he cries out as he falls to his knees, and rises a arm as though he's greeting the light before passing out. "P-Prin... cess..."

"Oh great..." Rose said as she hacks, covering her mouth with her sleeve until the cloud disappears.

"Quickly, we better get back to the others and remove the seeds!" Zidane said as he and Zellen starts to drag Steiner back to the ship. Rose, after some more coughing, lifts Vivi up and follows behind.

"It won't be necessary, fools," they all hear as something comes flying from the forest, Zidane dropping Steiner and diving away. Ramming into the tree near Rose, she looks at the object, reconizing it as a throwing star.

"Who are you?!" she said as she put Vivi down and goes in front of Zidane, Steiner, and Zellen, her swallow out once more. "And what do you want?"

"So the winged girl is going to challenge me first," the man said as he appears, his huge sword casually held up and leaning against his shoulder. "If you must know, it's Koroku. Now, prepare for your death."

"Hmph..." Rose looks over at Zidane and Zellen. "Take those two out of here, I can take care of him, at least hold him off. The seeds will sprout soon in their bodies, so hurry."

"But you also inhaled-" Zellen starts.

"I can handle it, I only gotten a small portion of it," Rose said as she turns back to the stranger, Koroku.

"Okay," Zidane said as he resumes on dragging Steiner, and Zellen takes over of carrying Vivi.

"That is very noble of you," Koroku said as he smirks behind his mask. This girl has spunk. "Or incredibly stupid of you, whichever it can be called."

Rose smirks herself as she crouches down and in fighting stance.

"Do not underestimate me. I can be full of surprises."

"I'm sure you are," he said before leaping up towards a tree, then springing off of its trunk and straight at Rose, his sword ready to slice. Rose blocks it off with one side of her swallow, then pushes his sword away and turns around, swinging the other end of the weapon at him. Koroku knocks it away and jumps backwards, Rose following with fast speed, more speed than he really expected from a non-ninja.

_'Is probably best to take care of this one before going after the monkey,'_ he thought as he throws his shuiken, making Rose stop and dodge. It grazes her arm as it goes by her, making her wince a bit as she lands on the ground. "Ready for more?" Koroku said as the shuiken returns to him, catching it with ease.

Rose holds her arm up to look at it, then licks her wound once, like a feline. She stands in another fighting stance, still smirking lightly.

"Bring it," she said.

--

"I think we should go back and help," Zellen said to the look-alike boy as she stops and looks back, hearing the clashing.

"Rose said she can handle things," Zidane said as he stops, breathing heavily, as he lets go of Steiner's arm, dropping the heavy man. "Gawd, it's impossible to move this guy so far and fast with all this armor on him!"

"But as it is, she also inhaled some of that gas, which means she won't last for long," Zellen protests.

"Honestly, you don't think I know that? I planned to head back as fast as I can when this lug is far enough from danger!"

"I'm going with you."

"Fine, but we better hurry with these guys - the seeds will hatch soon!"

--

"Getting exhausted already?" Koroku taunts as he hides his own wariness with more ease than Rose, the seeds making her hack even more. "This fight was just getting interesting!" The fight had eventually moved to the watery part of the swamp, the both of them soaked of water and mud, which are getting into their wounds.

"Do not count me out just yet," Rose said as she straightens up and spreads her wings, ignoring the one that is definitely broken. She quickly folds them against her back before hoisting her swallow back up and charging, using her speed again to clash against Koroku's sword.

"Heh, this is certainly more challenging than most of my other opponents," Koroku comments as they try to push one another backwards. "Tell me... What's your name, and what exactly are you?"

"Hmph... I am Rose Laxzi, the last of my summoner tribe," Rose said as she ends up taking a step back, maintaining her balance. "Half summoner, half cheetah being."

_'Summoner?? But I thought that after that attack, they were all wiped out...!'_ Koroku thought in surprise. He's one of the people that witnessed the wipe-out of the summoners, so for all the time until now, he thought them to be dead. _'And half... cheetah being? Cheetah...'_ "Interesting," he said instead. "That certainly explains why you're very fast. But unfortunately for you, mere speed only goes so far." He starts to push her back, making her slide through the mud. "Power and stealth is the almost guarantee way to go, especially for ninjas such as I!"

"Then you do not know cheetahs well," Rose said as she continues to try and withstand him, though badly failing as he continues to overpower her. "It is time to end this pointless fight."

As Koroku finally pushes her back and start to charge, Rose ducks from the attack and does a sort of uppercut at him with a kick, hitting squarely in the chest. While he regains his balance, Rose jumps back and tries to do a quick run at him. Mud doesn't like to be agreeable, and in this case, it decides to make good favors for Koroku - Rose slips and ends up going under the swampy water, only her wings exposing above for a small amount of time before she manages to sit up. Koroku expects her to jump back up and ready to fight, but she instead look at what's behind him in some surprise.

"Watch out!" she said as the sounds of scuttling feet finally reaches his ears, making him turn and face a Plant Spider, placing a well-aimed attack with its sharp arm and making Koroku fly backwards.

'_Dammit, how'd the monster manage to sneak up on me?'_ he thought as he tries to stand up. Rose is already on her feet and facing the monster, growling inhumanly as it screeches at her and Koroku.

"The stupid beast... It waited for us to tire each other out..." Rose mumbles to herself as she got ready to fight, even with a even more twisted ankle and unable to breath. As it is, though, the monster is definitely more able to beat them than them defeating it. Rose blocks the Plant Spider's attack as Koroku finally gets to his feet and goes at the monster from behind, striking in the side. The Plant Spider screeches in pain before turning on him, tackling him against the nearest tree. Koroku smirks as he buries his sword into the monster's guts... The Plant Spider jabs its arm into Koroku's shoulder as it screams once more in agony.

Rose glows white before charging, landing on the Plant Spider's back and unleashing a white beam, which goes right through the body and disintegrates the monster completely, not even dust left behind. When the support is no more, Rose ends up back in the swamp's water, hacking and trying to breath again.

'_At this rate, I will die of lack of oxygen before the damn seeds sprout...'_

"...Why did you help me? I'm your enemy," Koroku said, making Rose look up at the man that refuses to fall to his knees because of his bleeding shoulder.

"Is it such a crime to help someone...? I cannot stand aside to watch... It goes against my nature and upbringing of what I was taught..." she said after a pause of silence, both not really up to fighting again. But soon as she said that, she faints from the lack of oxygen, blood loss, and the fact that the seeds are beginning to be a little active.

"Rose!" Zidane and Zellen return just as Koroku falls unconscious himself, from his wounds and blood loss.

–

"You guys are lucky," Blank said as he walks into the room where Vivi lays in the single bed, and Rose in the bottom bed of the bunk, awake again and refusing to sleep. Koroku is in another room altogether, with two guards outside his room. "If it wasn't for Zidane, Zellen, and Rose," he said as he looks over at Rose, who isn't even listening, "you'd be dead." Vivi looks at Blank, half of his focus on him. "Some of the monsters in this forest reproduce by planting seeds in other animals. And when the seeds sprout, it's hasta la vista: you become beef jerky."

"Um... A-Am I gonna die?" Vivi asks nervously.

"No. You're gonna be fine," Blank assures him. "Here, drink this. It'll remove all the seeds from your body." He hands Vivi one of the bottles, helping him sit up and drink it. The drink is purple, which really looks like poison instead of an antidote.

"Ugh... eeyuck..." Vivi complains as he drinks it. He falls back with a disgusting taste in his mouth.

"Same with you, better drink up before the amount of seeds you inhaled sprouts," Blank said to Rose, who finally snaps back to reality. She slowly sit up with no sound of being in pain.

"... if it was poison instead of seeds, I would just pour this all over you. But I am not keen on becoming fertilizer," Rose answers as she takes the bottle and drink it without assistance. She winces from the taste. "... why does it taste like vinegar? Ik..."

And with Steiner, he is being led to the band equipment room.

"Princess... I'm coming right now..." he said. Zenero stays right behind him, leading him down. Steiner tries to head downstairs, but Benero comes up and pushes him back. "... Stand aside!" he demands as he tries going forward again. No go, for he is just too weak to even fight out of a wet paper bag, as Rose said much earlier today.

"Room behind you. Go."

"The princess... is in grave danger!" Steiner gasps and wheezes. "Do you intend to ABANDON HER?!"

"You're in no condition," Benero simply said.

"Don't worry about the princess. The boss'll think of something," Zenero said as Benero hands Steiner the same purple medicine. Zenero forcefully turns Steiner around to face the open room.

"Hey!" Steiner protests as Benero shoves him into the room. "Stop!"

"Get some rest," Zenero said as he closes the door.

"Yeah, and take that medicine I gave you."

Steiner stares around the room as he sits on the only table in the room, trying to breath.

"Dammit... I can't just sit here..." he said to himself. "The princess's life rests in my hands. What can their boss possibly accomplish?" He stares at the purple bottle in his hands. "This medicine... It smells terrible. And the color... This is obviously poison!" After the declaration, he stops to breath again, which each time it's painful to fill his lungs. "Uhg... I can't take it anymore..." he complains, his chest hurting. "God help me!"

He looks back at the bottle, shrugs, and drinks it.

_'It's the end for me anyway...'_ "Hey... not bad."


	8. The Search

_Nothing is what it was supposed to be. There is no such thing as 'protection in the arms of thy mother', or whatever the saying is. His own parents, the mother and father that brought him into this world..._

_They hate him. Hate him with such a passion that it's hard to believe that he hasn't recieved holes in his head from when they glare at him for whatever reasoning... He cries himself to sleep, unable to dream of a way to get out of this. He wishes to simply run away. To die, even._

_"How DARE YOU talk like that to your mother!" his father hollers as he brings his fist to his son's face, getting his right eye. "When she tells ya somethin', you're to DO IT! Children are to be seen, not heard!"_

_"B-but sir-"_

_"AND DON'T TALK BACK AT ME!" His fist comes back, hitting right where it has hit the first time. Something rupters this time, blood pouring out of the socket._

_'My eye!'__ He covers it with both his hands. The blood matches the color of his hair as he tries hard to stop the flow. His father comes at him again, but this time, something seems to snap from within... The eight year old boy rams his foot into the man's knee, making him buckle as the red-haired boy finally makes his way out of the house, both the man and the woman screaming at him. Blood and tears run down his face, his eye stinging badly as he makes his way back to the gang's recently new hideout._

_"Dear God!" one said, Marcus, exclaims as the boy makes his way inside. "What da hell happened?!"_

_"His father, that's wha happened..." Baku said darkly as he follows the boy in. One of the two girls, Zellen, walks into the room at a bad time, gasping from all the blood on his face._

_"Then we are to keep him far from them as possible," said the young Cinna as he rushes forward with a wet towel, pressing it against the boy's eye, making him weep even more. "And I'm not gonna be sorry if they finally come to their senses, they can't have him back."_

_"T-they'll be glad to be rid of m-me..." the boy speaks at last. "A-and I ain't goin' back, n-no matter what they t-tell me..."_

_"Even if they threaten ya," Baku agrees as he nods. "As I had told ya a thousand times, you're welcome to jus' stay here, Blank..."_

_"...T-thanks, Boss..."_

**DISCLAIMER**

Do NOT own any Final Fantast IX characters, plotline, nor anything else in it, for it is rightfully copyrighted to SquareEnix and its people. I RIGHTFULLY own Rose, while Koroku is of Kayoni's creation, and Zellen to MoonRhodes. Enough said...

**Chapter VIII:** The Search

"Forget it. Monsters born out of the Mist are crawlin' everywhere."

"So what? There's nothing out there that we can't handle." It is Zidane and Baku, arguing in the captain cabin.

Yeah, but what are we gonna do about the wounded?" Baku asks him.

"We can take 'em with us."

Baku shakes his head. "How are we gonna carry all of them? Trust me. We go out now, and we'll all get wasted." He turns away from Zidane and looks out of the window. "My boys come before the princess, you know. It's too bad..."

Zidane kicks the floor angrly.

"We're gonna stay put 'til everyone recovers. You better not set one foot outside this ship. You got that?"

"I can't believe you're abandoning her! You're nothing but a big coward!" Zidane shouts.

"I got nothin' else to say. If you don't agree with me, you're free to leave the band anytime," Baku responds, then refuses to look or talk again. Zidane leaves the room, stomping loudly as he went. Baku then looks back, watching Zidane go. "..."

While with Steiner, he is feelin' much better. He studies the room he is held in. "Hmm... The structure is in poor condition. Perhaps I can break out by ramming into the wall..." _'Da hell I could, in this poor condition I'm in...'_ he thought to himself. With a half-wit plan, he went over to the door and starts to jump. "FIRE! FIRE! LET ME OUT!" He nearly passes out from jumping and shouting, his stomach and chest hurting again. "UGH!" he wheezes. "I'm still not feeling well..." He goes and sit on the table to rest. Feeling something underneath him, he pulls out a doll. "What's this?" he said as he studies it. "What an ugly doll... 'Princess Garnet, age 15'? H-How dare they write the princess's name on such a ragged doll! Besides, the princess is not! She's 16! ...Princess..." he wheeps as he hugs the doll.

With Cinna, people watch as he runs around outside, searching for something.

"It should be here somewhere..." he said as he looks in another crate. "Huh...? Damn!" He runs to the other side, continuing the hopeless search. "Where is it?" he said angrly to himself. "What happened to my Garnet doll?!"

'He went crazy, kupo...' the moogle said in his head as he watches the guy.

"Man... How am I suppose to sleep now...?" He flops onto the ground, water or no water on the muddy ground, feeling depression. "Geez... Poor little doll... The fire probably caught it..."

---

"How are they?" Zidane asks Blank as he stands outside of the door that Vivi and Rose rests in. He wanted to check up on the guys, being that they all will have to get to know each other soon.

"I gave them some medicine. They'll be alright," Blank said with a shrug. " Why don't you go see the little guy? I think he wants to thank you."

"'Kay," Zidane said as he walks into the room.Vivi sits up when he sees Zidane. Rose ignores as she sits on her bed, her eyes closed as she stays against the wall behind the bed..

"Oh..." Vivi groans from the movement. "Th-Thank you for helping me."

"Ah, don't mention it," Zidane said with a smile. "Besides, it was your black magic that saved the day. You know, you've got some major power for such a little guy."

" ..."

"What's wrong...? Are you peeved at me because I called you little?" Zidane asks Vivi when he didn't answer. "Hey, you're great mage with great power, alright? To hell with looks. It's what's inside that counts."

"I'm sorry. When that monster caught her, I couldn't do anything..." Vivi starts softly, looking down at his hands.

"Hey, don't worry about the princess. I'll get her back. I promise," Zidane said with confidence.

"Thank you, Mr. Zidane."

Zidane gets taken aback at the name, and Rose slightly snickers as she then look like she isn't listening. " Whoa, that's the first time anyone's called me 'Mr.' Just call me Zidane, alright?"

"Okay... Zidane."

" Well, Rose? You gonna say something?" Zidane said as he looks over to the quiet girl. She looks up at him with a less focus attention than Vivi. She just shrugs at him, then stands up a bit slowly. She winces from her now mended wing and ankle, but then just walks out the room. Zidane waits for a minute before going out himself, deep in thought. Not too deep, since he notices that Blank has disappeared. Probably by Rose's appearance or something, he concludes as he turns back to his thoughts about the princess, Garnet.

'Man... I never felt so strange...' he thought as his keeps his arms crossed, walking. 'Mayby fate brought us together... I can't explain it...' "Man, I can't stop thinking about her... What am I gonna do...?" The answers hits him like a ton of bricks, though it is after deciding against it. "... the boss is right. The guys come first..." He finds himself in the control room where he had argued with the boss, but alone. "Geez, I don't know what to do..."

Then his memories of his promise to Garnet, to kidnap her.

'She looked kinda sad... Like she's all alone or something... I wonder what's troubling her...? She didn't look like the type that would consult others, either... Maybe we have something in common...' "This is crazy, I don't even know her. What am I gonna do...?" The anser finally slaps him in the face as though saying, "DUH, YOU IDIOT!" "Yeah! What's there to thinkg about! She's cute... and she's in trouble. That's all that matters."

He zips back downstairs, deciding to find Baku.

"... There you are," Zidane hears Blank said from the hallway. "Why do you look so serious? Uh-oh... What are you up to?"

"I'm gonna take that knight, black mage, and maybe even the weird girl to find the princess," Zidane answers confidently.

"You're crazy! Man, you don't even know what's out there! Besides, there's no way the boss'll allow that."

"I know..."

"Sheez... Why do you always gotta play hero? The boss is gonna kill you. Well, what are you waiting for? Go talk to the boss."

And so, Zidane heads for where the planning of kidnapping has held at, knowing that the Boss will be in there.

Blank wonders towards his destination, of which Zellen is in. He finds her soon after, in deep thought.

"Zellen?" Blank said, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Blank..." She smiles for the first time since they've returned to the crashed airship. "Well... I finally get to say hi."

"Yeah," Blank said as he smiles back. He has always known her, ever since he found her that night. As much as he doesn't know how she have gotten in the condition she was, he stuck with her, carried her to the hideout where the Tantalus gang made their home. "Where've you been, Zel?" he said as he comes over and sit next to her.

"...Searching," Zellen said as she looks down at her feet. "Lookin' for my brother."

"Eh? Oh yeah." He thinks on what he had said nearly six-seven years ago. "...Well, if he hadn't went off and try to find where he've come from, you would have met him then."

"Then who is he??" she said in a slight demanding kind of voice.

Blank gives a soft smile.

"It's Zidane. The boy who looks almost like ya."

"...That numbskull?!"

---

Zidane heads for where the planning of kidnapping has held at, knowing that the Boss would be in there.

"AHH... AHHHH... AAACHOOO!" Baku sniffles as he stands up from the ground. "Took you long enough... I fell asleep, darn it." He smirks at knowledgement. "So, you're leaving, eh?"

"Yeah..." Zidane said uncertainly. "I promised Garnet I'd kidnap her."

"Gwahaha! I didn't ask you why!" Baku laughs. "I can't blame you, though. She's damn beautiful. I guess that's reason enough!" He stretches a little bit. "Well, I hope you're ready! 'Cause I'm gonne bust you up for breakin' the rules."

"... Alright," Zidane said. _'Knew it would be this again...'_

Baku moves to fight, but then sees that the room's too small. "Okay, get your butt over to the cargo room. We got more room there." Baku pushes Zidane to the side as kicks the door open and exits the room. Zidane follows after grabbing some of the potions the boss left them.

"Hey, what's going on here?"

"I don't think you guys should be fighting," the witnesses, the violinist and drummer, said as Zidane approaches Baku.

"You ready?" Baku barks loudly.

"Anytime!" Zidane said as he pulls out his daggers and prepare to defend and attack.

"I ain't holdin' back," Baku said as he leaps forward with his sword up, crashing it against Zidane's daggers. The second attack, it hits Zidane's shoulder. "Rrrragh!"

Zidane recovers and attacks, as well as stealing a hi-potion. When Baku notices and went to attack again, he trips. "YEOWWW!"

"Ha!" Zidane said as he attacks as Baki is getting up.

"Bring it on!" Baku yells as he charges. He slightly trips, thus he spins around and ends up hitting Zidane's face with the back of his head. "ARGHHH!" he yells as he rubs the back of his head and retreats from Zidane, who's holding his nose. It's bleeding.

"That does it!" Zidane said as he goes in and slashes at Baku, making sure to steal the extra sword Baku carries in case of needing another.

"Gwahaha!" Baku roars as he suddenly leaps high into the air and slams the sword onto Zidane, who barely manages to block with his daggers. The force of the attack brings Zidane to his knees. Baku backs off and prepares to attack once more.

Zidane stands up and dodges Baku's attack, then slashes at his back.

"Gwahahaha! That tickles!" Baku laughs, making Zidane angry. Instead of backing off, he continues to go around Baku, slashing and hitting him. "You gotta fight better than that!"

"Then how about this?" Zidane yells as he leaps up and comes down, knocking the sword aside and attacking Baku from behind again.

"Alright, you win," Baku said as he puts his sword down, having enough of the fight. "I'll be damned..." he said as Zidane stands there with a smirk. "Bravo!" he said as he walks over and punches Zidane's guts. The smirk disappears as Zidane holds his stomach. "Go find your princess!" Baku turns around and heads up the stairs. "Gwahahahaha..."

Only after Baku's gone is when Zidane kneels for a minute, then stands back up. "Damn, that hurts! He pulled his punches 'til that last one," he grumbles as Blank walks up to him, Zellen right beside him and staring at Zidane for some reason unknown to the monkey boy.

"Way to go, Zidane. I unlocked the door to storage, so you're free to go talk to that knight."

"Thanks," Zidane said as he start to head up the stairs. Zellen grabs his arm, though, oddily burying her face into his sleeve. "Meh??"

"Sorry... But it's kind of nice to finally find the brother I was looking for..." she said as she looks up at him. He notices that her eyes looks almost exactly like his, her hair the same color and almost the same length...

"...'Brother'?" he said as he stares at her just like she did with him.

She gives a smile as she hugs him.

"I don't remember much, but I knew I had a brother..." she said. She really heard from the man she deeply hates that she has a brother somewhere on Gaia. But that was all he gave... "When me and Blank met and I was taken into the gang, you were at the time gone, went off to find your home. When ya finally did come back, I was gone... Looking for the brother that I merely missed..."

A part of his past finally finds Zidane.

_'I had a sister... Then there __**is**__ a family out there that's waiting for me...'_ he thought as he tightly hugs Zellen. "I'm so glad you found me... sis..."

And Blank remains to the side as they stay in their embrace. Finally finding each other and knowing that they belong in the same family. He smiles a bit, happy that Zellen is happy at last.

--

Zidane finally enter the room of which Steiner resides in, the captian not giving any notice to his visitor at first as he continues to hold the doll of Garnet.

"..."

"Come on. You're too old to be playing with a doll," Zidane said. Steiner stands up, now angry.

"Silence! A scoundrel like you could never understand! I'm just overwhelmed with concern for the princess!" he adds when Zidane raises an eyebrow, silently saying, 'Never understand, huh?'. "I only you rogues hadn't kidnapped her... This is all your fault!" Steiner continues to rave on. "If anything should happen to the princess, I will have your head!"

"Take it easy. Geez... I'm gonne go look for her now. I'll let you come with me if you promise to be good. What do you say, Rusty?"

Steiner starts jumping in rage.

"RR... RUSTY! I am Adelbert Steiner, Captain of the Knights of Pluto, and I will never work with your conniving thieves!"

"Captain? I figured you were a privet, what with that cheap rusty armor..."

"Well, he's certainly a captain. He raves like one," Rose said through the open door. She was on her way back to the room when she heard Steiner.

Zidane holds a laugh back and continues before Steiner could start to protest. "Look, this has nothing to do with Tantalus. It's something I decided to do on my own. I just wanna save Garnet."

"Hmph...! You had better not be lying! Because if you are, I won't hesitate to kill you!"

"Yeah, yeah," Zidane says as he nods. "I'm counting on you, Rusty."

Rose makes a small scoff before walking off again.

"Make no mistake. I'm only going with you to rescue the princess! I will deal with you personally when this is over!"

"... Whatever," Zidane said boredly.

"It may be difficult with just the two of us. We should seek Master Vivi's help as well."

"Why are you calling him 'Master'?"

"You fool. That black mage has unimaginable powers... I don't want to get him involved, but alas, it can't be helped. We need Master Vivi's powers to rescue the princess."

"Alright, let's go talk to Vivi. And even Rose, since she's pretty good at fighting, too."

As they head for where Vivi's at, Marcus intercepts them.

"I heard you beat the boss. You sure are something. I don't know why the boss was laughing afterwards... Maybe you hit him too hard."

"Yeah, maybe," Zidane laughs as he and Steiner go past him and enter the room. Both Vivi and Rose are in there, talking a little bit.

"Well, Vivi, we're ready to go look for the princess," Zidane said.

"Really? That's great! Be careful, okay?"

"Actually, we want you and Rose to come with us."

"I knew there was a catch..." Rose said,

"Huh? B-But I can't do anything."

"Hardly, Master Vivi. You magic was highly effective against that monster. In all honesty, I hold your power in greater esteem than I do this scoundrel's!"

"B-But... I'm scared. I couldn't even move last time."

"Please, Master Vivi. For the sake of Princess Garnet and all of Alexandria, I humbly request your assistance!"

"Come on! You're a black mage, for crying out loud! Show us what you've got! Alright, let's get going."

"... Okay," Vivi said at last. "I'll... try my best."

"Thank you, Master Vivi."

"And how about you?" Zidane said to Rose. "I'm sure you can be very helpful, as well, with your fighting skills."

" ...Alright, I guess I will," she said after awhile.

"Um, w-what about the ninja guy?" Vivi said quietly, as though afraid Koroku will burst through the walls at the name 'Ninja Guy'.

Zidane pauses and thinks on that, then at Rose.

"Other than trying to kill me, how is he otherwise?" he asks, surprising Rose.

"...He is a very honorable man that seem to follow the tradianal way of the ninja. He might - and as I repeat, since I do not know him myself, _might_ - help us, to repay the debt of you saving us..." she said after a long while of thinking. She remembers Master Kuja telling her about the ways of the ninja in one lesson.

"Hmm... Then maybe we'll ask him, too," Zidane said, making Steiner stare at him.

"But he tried to kill you, you stupid monkey!" He pauses at this thought. "...Though if he is to do so later..."

Zidane chooses to ignore Steiner's mumbles.

"Then let's get going."

As Zidane leaves, Steiner stops and turns to Vivi. Rose could see that this is not her business, so she follows Zidane out the door.

"Master Vivi..."

"Yeah?"

"It's about your black magic. I wish to try an experiment." He kneels down. "(I was wondering if...) **Whisper, whisper...**"

"Magic sword? Okay, I'll give it a try." Then they follow behind Rose and Zidane out the door.

Rose was facing the other direction and actually ushers Vivi back, thus making Steiner back off, too. She is, for the first time since they've met her, red in the face.

"Just wait..." she murmers when Steiner demands why she is holding them back.

Zidane stares dumbly at the scene before him...

**Sorry guys for the long-awaited chapter! Bunch of bullshit was happening to me, as much as I don't talk about them on the topic on Gaiaonline... But yeah, I finally finished the chappie, and I plan to keep up more with the chapters! I will **_**TRY**_**!! Thank you!**


	9. Not Out of the Woods Yet

"_Master Kuja, I do not fully understand..."_

"_Relax and take the move slow," Kuja said as he was having Rose go through some fighting stances. He has come to find her as an exceptional fighter, and it really took much of his time to find the right weapon for the now eleven-year-old Summoner. It seems she is only capable of handling a double-bladed weapon that seems to be called a swallow. Rose has already named it, for which is 'Kenzel.' He still doesn't understand what the name means, but he merely went with it._

"_Shift your footing with the move, that's what was causing you to loose your balance so quickly."_

"_Oh..." As she tries again, her sharp ears catches something. She doesn't say anything about it until she finishes with her training. Kuja dismissed her after about another hour of getting her through many different fighting stances and positions._

"_Um... Master Kuja? What was that sound from a little earlier...?" Rose asks. Kuja turns his head to her, smiling gently as she looks up at him._

"_Don't be concerned about it," he said as he walks back over to the front of her. She nods while looking down, but he kneels down and lifts her chin to have her look back up at him. "Alright?"_

"_Yes, Master Kuja," she said with a small smile. He strokes her cheek then pats her on top of the head._

"_Good girl," he said gently as the sound is heard again. As soon as he turns away from his 'pupil', he scrowls very lightly. __**'She is hoping to be heard by someone and be rescued. Stupid Gnome...'**__ he thought to himself as Rose starts off to the mansion of Treno, where she has almost always been at for her life with Kuja. Sometimes, it was to the Desert Palace, but she prefers Treno to that._

'_**Zellen, if you wish to survive, you should keep quiet...'**__ Kuja thought with a soft sigh. He heads to the direction, ready to put her back in her place once more..._

**DISCLAIMER  
**Um, dun own Final Fantasy IX, nor any of its characters. I also point out that Zellen and Koroku, as well as a few others don't belong to me, they belong to my friends. Rose so far is the one to belong to me.

**Chapter IX: **Not Out of the Woods Yet

"So... Zellen, how did you come back? And did you do well on your travels?" Blank asks as they sit outside, so that Zidane and Steiner can talk to the black mage and the winged girl.

"Long. And hard..." Zellen sighs as she surprises Blank by leaning against his arm and shoulder. "I missed you the most, other than my brother."

"I missed you too. I worried that you wouldn't be able to find us, being that we kept going on searches and missions to get treasure for us to live on for some more months."

Zellen giggles.

"Yeah, I know. Ya'll were nearly impossible to track down! I've been to Lindblum so many times to catch you, but everyone is always gone whenever I get there." She looks over to the room. "Rose helped me out, getting onto that ship. She became help to me when she pulled out a piece of paper about the play, and your name was on there."

"So **that's** how you knew where we were at," Blank said as he laughs. "She flew you up to us?"

"Yeah. The flight was terrifying! She nearly rammed us into a tower!"

"That would have hurt lots!" Laughing again, the two just grins at each other, falling silent.

"Hey... Blank...?"

"Yeah?"

"Um..." He watches as she blushes a little. "I've... always wanted to tell you... how I've felt of you..."

He doesn't answer as he continues to watch her, his heart racing.

"I never had the chance... nor the courage to say this... But..." Zellen looks up at Blank. "I love you..." she said softly.

'_Ack! He probably finds that stupid or something now!'_ she thought, trying to scold herself.

"Zellen..." Before she can look up once more, he hugs her tightly. Out of reaction, she hugs him back, embracing him out of happiness that he isn't calling her stupid or something! "I love you as well..." Zellen hears him whisper. She smiles out of complete delight as she tightens her hold on him.

"I'm so happy to hear that..." she said as they pull apart a little. Blank leans forward and kisses her gently on her lips, making her blush. He pulls away quickly and looks to the side a little, his face red as well. Zellen just smiles again as she kisses him, being that she doesn't want him so embarrassed about kissing her. Blank returns her kissing, tightening his hold on her a little.

"Gah?!" they both hear as they pull apart and look over to see Zidane gawking at them both. Their faces turn deep red, as Blank lets go of Zellen while she glares at him.

"What?!" she demands.

"Ya'll were kissing! I just found that I have a sister, and already you're making out with my best friend!!" Zidane blurts out, waving his arms around like a idiot.

"You don't have the right to tell me what to do, even if you **are** my brother!!"

A small "Ahem..." is heard behind Zidane, and the three looks over at Rose. Zidane sulks away at this, being that he's just now embarrassed about the whole scene. Zellen and Blank just blushes more as Rose silently walks out of the room and towards the guarded room, her own face a little red. She didn't exactly wanted to hear all of what Zidane said in the first place...

After convincing Zenero and Genero to let her in, Rose stands inside near the door as she sees Koroku also wide awake.

"What are you doing here?" he asks as he looks up. He's sitting against the wall with his arms crossed, his shoulder and any other wounds cleaned and wrapped up.

"For one thing, to get away from the idiots..." she replies with a small huff, leaning against the door and crossing her arms over her chest. "The reason is that we would like you to consider joining our little search party for Princess Garnet..."

"Me? Consider teaming up with my targets?"Koroku narrows his eyes at Rose. "Please explain this need to even bother thinking about it...?"

"For one, Mr. Mask... You _are_ a ninja... Correct? You have your honor. If I recall correctly of everything I know of ninjas, they usually would repay anyone that helps them, whether it was wanted or not. Of course, that does not make me an expert..." She sighs. "Besides, I asked if you would consider it... I did not tell you to come with us or die..."

"...You are odd, but correct," Koroku said with a small sigh behind the mouth mask. "I might... Who spoke up about asking me to join?"

"Zidane."

"The monkey?? After I tried to kill him?"

"Apparently, he is a forgiving guy... He has that Captain join his group first. As well as Vivi and myself."

"Hm..." Koroku chuckles. "He's either naive or pretty brave for even considering me." He looks at Rose, who remains unmoving against the door. "Tell me, why did you agree?"

"Well... For one thing, I do not really wish to remain behind with the remaining people here. They are complete imbeciles in my book." She sighs out of something that Koroku is just guessing is some sort of guilt. "I have also left without even letting my master know I was going to be gone. There could not be anything done for me at the time, though, for I was caught up on the ship."

"Master?" Koroku raises an eyebrow. He figured that she was traveling or something alone.

"Yes, Master Kuja," she said as she uncrosses her arms and turns to leave. "But please consider helping us at least find Princess Garnet... Zidane will be in here himself when he finishes sulking around to ask..."

'_Kuja?!'_ he thought as she leaves him. _'...Why would someone like her be with such a man as that? What is she for?'_

—

"Ya leavin' now?" Cinna asks as everyone starts to head out.

"Yeah, we have to find the princess before she gets eaten," Zidane said as he rubs the back of his head. With a wave, he turns and leaves with the rest.

"Sheez... you really dig her, huh?" Blank said as he leans on the wall.

"I can't sit around knowing a girl's in trouble. Goes against my nature."

"Whatever. You're full of crap."

"I dun see why you should be so jealous... You were making out with Zellen."

" Pshhh, you're just not gonna let that drop, are ya?? I came down here to give you this."

"You're always thinking about me... but I won't need a love potion to reel this one in."

" Why don't you get your mind off girls for a second? This is the medicine I gave to that black mage, knight, and weirdo girl. It's sort of like a seed remover."

"Cool. This'll really come in handy," Zidane said as he walks over to Blank.

"Why am I always helping you...?" Blank said more to himself as he hands over the bottle. "Oh yeah. Here's a little tip from the boss." He hands over a piece of paper to Zidane.

_Leaving the band is your business,  
__but you better keep training!  
__Learning more abilities is  
__gonna make you even stronger._

_Good luck,  
__**Baku**_

"Thanks, Blank. I'll see you when I see you," Zidane said as he starts to follow where the others went.

"You better take care of Zellen! Or else I'm hunting you down!"

"And you take care of the gang!"

"Great, now that we wasted time with all the good-byes, let's get going," Koroku said with a small huff. He agreed to come along, though it was because of Rose's asking rather than Zidane's.

"Okay, okay, let's go..."

As they trek through the forest, back at the ship...

"Okay, let's really liven up this place!" the conductor said as they start to play on their instruments.

"Yeah, let our music do the fighting against those monsters!" said the violinist.

"This outta boost moral!" cries the cymbalist.

"This is great!" said the drummer.

"Brrum, brrrum, brrrriiim!"

As they were playing, Baku walks down the stairs, listening. "Hey, not bad!" He turns around before going outside. "I gonna go take a look around. Stay on your toes. We'll be leaving soon."

"Alright!"

"Okay, Boss!"

"Brrruuuum!"

—

"A spring?" Zidane was ahead of everyone, so it would explain why he started to talk to himself. He walks around the stump of a tree, with clear water pouring out of a stub of a branch and into the small moat around the tree stump.

"Okay, seriously, are you just going to go ahead and drink some unknown water before knowing if it is safe or not...?" said Rose as she raises an eyebrow.

"Oh c'mon! I'm thirsty, since we didn't exactly had supplies back at the ship for traveling on foot!"

"You're hopeless..."

"I agree with the ninja and the girl," Steiner speaks up as he narrows his eyes at Zidane. "I normally wouldn't care about your health concern, but we are in need of rescuing the princess!"

They hear someone sipping water, and they turn to look at Vivi, who sighs out of relief.

"I-it's safe..." he said in a quiet voice when everyone stared at him.

"Well... If he is not turning purple, then it is safe to conclude that the water is, indeed, safe..." Rose said with a sigh as she takes a turn at getting some water down her throat.

"Uh, how could ya tell if he _was_ turning purple? I can't see his face," said Zidane like the idiot he is.

"And I'm honestly related to him...?" Zellen said to herself before taking a few sips. Rose smirks at the remark and Koroku chuckles lightly as everyone has their fill of the spring water before moving on.

And back to the ship again...

"Are you sure about this?" Blank asks as he and Baku were walking to the hallway that has the staircase going up to the control room.

"Yeah, don't worry. We'll be outta here soon, too. Here, take this map. It's gonna be a long trip back to Lindblum..."

"Alright. I'll see you later."

"I'm countin' on you!"

Blank and Baku salutes to each other before

—

"A river? I didn't know that the forest had one..."

"Well, even if it _**is**_ an forest of evil, there was bound to be a river..." Rose said with a blank face.

"Aw, cut me some slack!"

"T-then it means that if we were to find this river once w-we're out of this forest, we m-might find a village or something," Vivi said.

"Unlikely," Koroku said as he walks by. "Villages, under the Mist? That's a pretty slim chance. Who would want to live in fear of always being attacked by Mist monsters?"

"Exactly, Master Vivi. But the river will show the way to the waterfall that's near the city of Alexandria! And if I recall correctly, the river going the other way _does_ lead to the North Gate."

"North Gate?" Rose's curiosity peaks at that.

"A path that leads from below the Mist to the top," said Koroku as they start to walk again.

"Ah." She was following, but she stops and stares through the opening of the trees. Something started to catch her attention, and the hair on the back of her neck was rising. She wraps her arms around the ribs as though she was cold. _'Something is here... And it is angry that we are here...'_ she thought as she hurries to catch up with the others.

The Plant on the other side of the river glows red of fury as its thorny vines winds themselves around the nearby trees. Some of the Plant Spiders around moves slightly in anticipation. Waiting.

"A carven!" Steiner said as he spots something ahead of them, and Rose beats them all by running forward with caution, being careful with her mended ankle. Her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of the area, and she immediately spots Garnet, wrapped in vines and against the wall. What was in the middle of the carven is what's making her worry the most.

"There she is!" Vivi exclaims, causing the Plant Brain to turn towards them.

"Princess!" Steiner turns on Zidane. "You stay out of this! Alexandria would be disgraced if a mere bandit should rescue the princess."

"You think you can handle him on your own?"

"..."

"Let's get him, everyone!" Zidane cries as the monster swings its vines at them. Everyone jumps out of the way in time, and Rose timed it right to land on one of the vines, trying to keep her balance on it as the monster releases some sort of pollen into the air. Rose instantly becomes blind, but she merely tries to concentrate on the surroundings with her sense of smell and sound instead of sight. Vivi and Steiner were blinded as well, but Zidane, Zellen and Koroku manages to cover their eyes in time.

"I must admit that this is the biggest monster I've encountered for quite a long while!" Koroku said as he jumps aside and dives right through the tentacles with apparent great timing of getting through the short gaps. He hacks away at the base of the monster, making it scream in fury and pain. It start unleashing swarms of Thunder magic onto the group. Koroku is lucky to be under the swinging tentacles and Rose is lucky to have a better sense of feeling the air around her, so-to-speak, being that she almost always manages to move out of the way in time for many of the bolts of lightening.

"YOW!" cries the not-so-lucky Steiner as about three bolts of the magic spells hits him. And because he's wearing armor, he conducts the electricity much more than anyone else around him.

"Hey Rose! Watch out for flying tentacles!" Zellen yells as Rose keeps losing her balance on the tentacle she's on, being that she has to cling to it tightly to stop from falling off. She still can't see, but she hears Zellen's warning. But no matter what, she couldn't see where it's coming from, so she's hit with a great force that sends her against the nearest wall. She yelps loudly from the fact that her wing is now in need of having to be put back in place and splinted, but she stands back up. Using her white magic, she cures herself of blindness, finally able to see the enemies and the blindly-swinging Steiner. Vivi, even if he is blind, manages to find the mark of his magic spells from afar. She concentrates on curing them of their blind state before entering the battle once again.

"Whew, I made it just in time!" Blank shouts as he rushes into the heat of the battle, slashing away a vine away from Zellen. He smirks at everyone that took a glance at him. "Step aside. I'll take care of this."

"Blank!" Zidane said in shock and relief as his friend attacks, blood now dripping from the wound he inflicts.

"Master Vivi, let's try the experiment with your Fire!"

"Okay!" With deep concentration, Vivi forms fire onto Steiner's blade, yet not burning the holder of the weapon. Steiner smirks as he charges forward.

"Take a taste of Fire Sword!" he said in a sort of war-cry as he buries his fiery steel weapon into the Plant Brain's guts. It screeches loudly as everyone moves in to attack as well. With all the combination of everyone's attacks, the monster gives a weak cry of pain and anguish before falling limp, falling to the side with its roots still in the ground...

"At last..." Rose said quietly as she puts a hand in front of her face, silently praying for forgiveness of the soul of the Plant Brain. Koroku glances over at her and sees this, seeing this as a sort of respect she has towards her fallen opponents.

"Princess! Please get a hold of yourself!" Steiner yells as Garnet is still unconscious, even though Zidane managed to pull the bindings of the vines off of her.

"Zidane, giver her the stuff," Blank said. Zidane nods as he walks over and carefully gets Garnet to drink the medicine. She hacks from the awful taste.

"Princess, please try to drink all of it," Steiner said as she does, then he lifts her into his arms.

"Is she gonna be okay...?" Vivi asks timidly.

Rose stiffens and turns her head in the direction they first came from. Her arms wraps around herself again as she narrows her eyes in worry.

"What is it?" Koroku asks, making the rest of the group look at Rose.

"The forest is very angry..." was her answer before the ground beneath everyone's feet starts to shake violently...


	10. Sad Parting

"_I am going to find him."_

"_Zellen... You sure?"_

"_Yes!" Zellen and Blank stands on the docks of Lindblum, where it is the most abandoned place in the city. It lays beneath the Mist, and soldiers that were supposed to be 'guarding' the docks are always gone. They fear the monsters to spawn out of nowhere in a second. "I have to find my brother, Blank! I... I just want to have at least some sort of family with me."_

"_...I understand," Blank said while he looks down at the ground. The months before, he asked if she had family somewhere. It was just a question he hadn't asked until years later after he helped her from the alley. She had pondered on it for a long while, but with what seemed to be other thoughts as well to his question. "Just... Just promise to be back, a'right?"_

"_Of course," she said as she turns to him. "You really think I'd take off and never see my friends ever again? You got 'nother thing coming to thinking that!" They both laugh. Blank's worries certainly lessens._

"_Good," he said with a grin. "I'd wouldn't know what to do with the others without ya!"_

"_Heh he." She raises her hand and salutes. "I am still part of the gang, you know. You don't have to worry about me never returning. I don't want to lose those that's so close to me!"_

_Blank starts to salute as well, but Zellen rushes forward first and hugs him tightly, still smiling._

"_You better take care of everyone, then!" she said as she parts and turns to the entrance. She didn't see the blush that was on Blank's face._

"_I will!" he said after her as she walks after her. "Hurry with your search!"_

"_Byies until I come back with results!"_

_After she has went and been gone for about five minutes, he sighs as he crosses his arms._

"_Stay safe. I really wouldn't know what to do without you in my life..." he said with a sad sigh._

**DISCLAIMER  
**Still don't own FF9 nor any of the characters. I wish I don't have to repeat this over and over XD; Oh, and you know me, Mikol! I love leaving you all hanging! _**grins**_ And MoonRhodes, just so you know, I'm drawing all that happened in the RP, by _MEMORY_... And do you recall how **BAD** my memory is?? _**sweatdrops**_

**Chapter X:** Sad Parting

"Oh, man! What now?!" Blank yells as the Plant Brain sinks into the hole that was created underneath it. Just as soon as it disappears from sight, monsters jump out of the hole, and more of its kind block the entrance they all came through. "Sheez! We're gonna be surrounded!"

"Let's get out of here!" Zidane said.

"GO!" Blank yells, and everyone didn't need to be told twice. Vivi starts to shake as the others took off as the monsters start to move towards him. "What are you waitin' for?!" Blank said to Vivi, who shook his head and runs after the others. Blank follows afterwards, the Plant Spiders behind him now.

As they reach a small cliff, Rose and Koroku merely jumps off of it as the others manages to jump ledge to ledge. As soon as they reached the ground though, four Plant Spiders encounters them, two from behind and two more from the front.

"They ain't letting us go so easily," Koroku said as he attacks one of the ones in front.

"Let us just deal with the ones in the front, I will keep the back brigade busy," said Rose from behind everyone, distracting the Plant Spiders until Zidane and them took care of the monsters. She runs after them after knocking the last of the monsters at the moment, unbalanced.

Any more encounters, they were swiftly dealt with. The monsters use Thunder spells and good strong physical attacks, but their defense turns out to be pretty weak. Even Vivi took care of one Plant Spider with his Fire magic. As the gang seems to be in the clear, Zidane suddenly stops and turns around.

"What are you doin'?" Black demands as he stops as well, looking back at Zidane in confusion.

"The entire forest is coming after us," Zidane states as he turns around to face Blank. "Blank... Take care of everyone," he said as he runs past the baffled Blank.

'_What did he mean by that?'_ Blank wonders to himself as he quickly follows.

The ground starts to shake and rumble beneath everyone's feet. Rose takes a quick glance over her shoulder to see a HUGE herd of Plant Spiders behind them.

"That is NOT COOL!" she shouts out as she ignores her ankle altogether and tries to run full-out. The others took the time to glance and immediately agree with Rose. They took her example and run the fastest they ever ran before.

Shrieks fill the air as the Plant Spiders in the back of the stamped turns to stone. Zidane starts to fall behind everyone, making sure that Vivi and anyone in the back doesn't fall more behind than him. Close scuttling behind him makes him turn his head in time to see one of the Plant Spiders desperately racing after him and trying to grab ahold of him. Zidane starts to throw his arms up in some attempt to deflect the monster, but Blank suddenly shoves Zidane out of the way. The Plant Spider gets Blank instead.

"Blank!!"

"Don't!" Blank yells at Zidane when he stopped to go back and try to help Blank out. Zidane looks past Blank to see all of the monsters had fallen and had turned to stone. And the one that is holding the struggling Blank is in the process. "Here! Catch!" Blank throws the scroll of the map the Boss gave him what seems like hours ago. "Zidane... Take care of everyone!" he said, quoting Zidane as the monkey boy nods and runs in the direction of the map. _'I'm sorry, Zellen...'_

As the scroll flies overhead before hitting the ground and bounces, Zidane scopes it up in time before it did a second bounce. Zidane waves it over his head as he looks back at Blank, but all he sees is a bunch of thick vines and tentacles flying out of nowhere, all of them after him. Running as fast as he can now, Zidane ducks, jumps and avoids every one of the objects. With the tentacles now trying to fly overhead to get in front of him, Zidane dives just in time for the tentacles to dive into the ground, blocking the entrance completely. Zidane starts to breath hard, trying to catch his breath as Rose manages to look up from where she has fallen. He looks behind him to see Steiner still holding Garnet in his arms, Vivi, Koroku and Zellen gathered with him, then turns back to watch the vines twist and intertwining before turning to stone. The entrance completely sealed and keeping everyone from being able to reenter through the passage...

Blank is now but a statue, still in the position that he threw the map...

- - -

"Blank!!!" Zellen cries as she feebly pounds at the entrance, her voice really hoarse from the last ten minutes of yelling out his name.

"Dammit, that IDIOT!" Zidane yells out in anger as he kicks the stony vines. His feet and knuckles hurt from all the hitting he's doing, but he just seems to be determined to knock down the stone.

Rose may have no real connection with Blank, but she is pretty solemn. Her face expresses what she's feeling for the first time since she has been with the group, feeling pretty much at loss because of someone being in great danger and/or dead, and she can't do anything... She can't stand loss of lives, especially humans.

"Zellen..." she said after Zellen has just broken down and started to cry right then. Rose limps over to Zellen and kneels next to her, laying a hand on the girl's shoulder. Zellen shrugs off Rose in the first attempt, but Rose manages to get Zellen to stand up and have her walk towards the fire Vivi started a bit earlier. They leave Zidane to be by himself, being that Zidane isn't tired of beating himself up yet.

After some more pounding, Zidane falls onto the ground, sitting there in defeat.

"Blank..."

- - -

"I hope she gets well soon..." Vivi said after some hours of warming up and resting, many of them just healing their wounds.

"This is all his fault!" Steiner yells, pointing the blame finger at Zidane, who stretches half-heartedly. "Have you nothing to say, you filth?!"

Zidane merely scratches his bum while ignoring Steiner best he could.

"...Oh..." Garnet moans as she slowly sits up, holding her head.

"P-Princess!" Steiner said as he kneels down next to the princess.

"...Steiner?...How did I survive? You brought me here?"

"It is my sworn duty to protect you at any cost."

Zidane isn't going to let Steiner take all the credit.

"What are you talking about? It was Vivi's magic, my and Zellen's daggers, and Rose and Koroku's awesome'ness that got you out of there, Princess."

"I thank you all."

"That monkey deserves no praise!" Steiner stands up in rage. "None of this would've happened if you and your band hadn't abducted the princess!"

"Psh..." Rose finally sounds off, sitting from on top of the rock that leers over the group, Zidane looking up at her. She has mended her wing and ankle the best she could with sticks and vines that grew around the parts nearby (during the 'running-for-dear-life' episode, the bondage on her wing disappeared, especially after the battle with the Plant Brain, and her ankle is worse than ever with all the running. She has a lose-lose situation; she can't fly to safety, nor could she run from danger). "Captain, you cannot take _all_ of the credit..."

"Silence, you wench!" Steiner jumps up and down in anger as he turns back to Zidane. "And how dare you claim that you have rescued her! When we get back to Alexandria, I will-"

"Steiner..." Steiner immediately halts his previous actions and kneels next to Garnet again. "I left the castle of my own will."

"What a coincidence, eh? We went to snatch her, and she wanted to be snatched."

"Impossible!"

"It's true!" Garnet protests.

"And what of you?!" Steiner turns back to Rose, pointing the blame finger again, but at her this time. "You were on the theater ship, when you should have been watching it from the balcony of-"

"It is none of your business as of what I was doing," Rose said coldly, almost shocking Steiner into quiet submission. Almost.

"Ha, I bet it had something to do with helping out the monkey's sister," said Koroku as he smirks from where he sits.

Rose rolls her eyes as Steiner blinks.

"So what do you say, Rusty? Friends? Come on, let's enjoy this camping trip while it lasts!" Zidane said with a fake grin.

"Camping - you imbecile!" Steiner said in dismay as he stands up once more and turns to Zidane. "Surely even **you** must know something about the Mist. The vicious monsters it spawns! The abnormal ties it stirs in the body and mind!" He turns to Princess Garnet. "Princess, we must leave this dangerous place at once!"

"Yeah. Right..." Rose gives off a sound of disgust with the Captain. "And _**how**_ exactly are you going to accomplish that, Sir Lance-a-Rust?"

"You've gotta be kidding me. She hasn't even fully recovered yet," Zidane said as he agrees with Rose with a small nod.

"Silence! Who asked you two for your opinions?!"

"Then tell us. How are you going to get the princess to safety, when it's a fact that she can't even walk?" Koroku injects.

"Exactly." Zidane walks a little ways to look out. "We're standing in a valley, surrounded by tall cliffs. And last I heard, North Gate and South Gate were sealed off." He turns back to Steiner.

"..."

"Yeah. That's what I thought."

"Grrrrr..." Steiner growls his frustration as Zidane walks back over to the fire. He looks over at Zellen to find her fast asleep in the tent, exhausted from all the crying. He looks back at Steiner and them.

"The princess can barely walk right now. You went through this. You should know. I think we should rest here for now."

"I will never follow your-"

"Steiner!" Zidane cuts him off. "State your sworn duty!"

"What else?" Steiner salutes as he says, "To protect Princess Garnet Til Alexandros!" Steiner then sees the light. "...Very well. Until the princess recovers, I will guard this place with my life."

"Sounds good to me," Zidane said with a nod as Steiner walks over to the path of the entrance to stand guard. Zidane turns to Vivi. "Vivi, let's get some rest." They sit on the ground around the fire as they try to think on other things. Pretty soon the two and the princess goes to the tent to get sleep, leaving Rose, Koroku, and one sleepy Steiner that's falling asleep on his feet.

"Ha... Sleep... Not me..." Rose mumbles to herself as she manages to get down from the top of the rock to sit around the fire herself now, throwing in a few sticks.

"Even I have to find sleep," speaks up Koroku. Rose really thought he was asleep, being that he had his eyes closed and everything.

"Then you are part of the lucky people," Rose said with a shrug.

'_Lucky? Whatever she fears about sleeping isn't that bad, is it?'_ He mentally shakes his head. _'I don't know her at all, though, so what would I know? All I know is that she's part of the race that I thought were all wiped out.'_

"Besides..." Rose adds as she turns to look at Steiner with a blank face. "Who could sleep with someone like _**him**_ guarding us...?"

Koroku chuckles at that.

"You don't really have much faith in him, do you?"

"Uh, no. I had known him for some years now, and he is the same as ever..." She shakes her head. "Still the obnoxious Captain and forever ranting on about thieves..."

"I see your point," Koroku agrees. He only known Steiner for about some weeks now, and yet he already sees Rose's point about the guy.

They both fall silent when Steiner jerks awake and looks over at them as though they're planning something.

"...Hey," Koroku speaks up after Steiner turned around. "How did you come to be with Kuja?"

"How?" Rose blinks at him.

"Yeah. It had been bugging me since you mentioned his name earlier. I sort of knew him when I was much younger, being that my father helped him sometimes."

"Oh..." She looks at the fire. "Master Kuja rescued me when I was about eight or nine. I just stayed with him, and he trained me in combat and taught me what I knew little of." Rose shrugs. She's withholding a lot of information, but he only asked how she met Kuja. "You were just curious?"

"Just a bit, yes." It isn't like he could tell her that from what he knew of Kuja, he's a madman that's bent on killing more people to make the tree overflow with souls... She wouldn't believe him in the slightest.

"...Well, I am going to go take a walk," she said as she stands up, being careful with her ankle.

"You sure?"

"Yes. I may have a badly-twisted ankle, but I can manage on my own. I just want to be alone for a little while..." With a slight smile of reassurance, she starts to walk. "Besides, when did you care for one of your 'targets', Mr. Mask?"

'_...I couldn't tell you, for I don't even know why I even bothering to care,'_ Koroku thought with a silent huff. She apparently nicknamed him 'Mr. Mask.' He can only admire the boldness in her attitude.

Rose approaches the entrance, sitting among the plants nearby.

'_Zellen is very torn apart... My heart aches from her own pain,'_ she thought as she fiddles with the leaves of a dead flower next to her. _'The state the forest is in... I think it is called Petrify, but this is something I did not think would happen.'_ She looks up at the 'door.' _'If anyone tries to cure the guy, the entire forest could very well be revived as well...'_ An idea sparks in her mind. _'Doctor Tot had talked about that one medicine that heals only the one that is intended to be revived... Maybe I could help her after all!'_ Rose smiles very slightly. _'The trip is uncertain. Maybe we could be in Treno. I can see the doctor and as well as Master Kuja!'_ She finally smiles fully. _'I hope he is not angry with me. I did not really intend to end up with this situation.'_

Looking back down at the flower, she suddenly hums very softly to herself. The plant quivers slightly before the blackness of the petals leaves, the flower blooming again to life. Any seeds that had fallen from the flower a long while ago sprouts and grows, making a small bouquet in the ground. She finds this fitting to leave for the spirits she believes in, that resided in the forest before it was petrified. She also sees this as a small spark of hope for Blank.

'_I will ask everyone about my idea tomorrow,'_ Rose thought with a nod. She stays for about thirty minutes before she finally went back to the others, returning to the fire and sitting down of the other side of Koroku, silence mostly issued except idle chatter to pass time until the others awake for the morning.


	11. Ice Cavern

_The two of them are very different from one another. But somehow, a father-son relationship formed, despite that the Qu was still fretting over the young mage's lack of fattening up. When the young mage was fished out of the Mist, it was two weeks later that he became... aware of being alive. It had surprised the Qu that had been used to the silence was suddenly answering so many questions the black mage could throw out._

_Quan had taken the responsibility of teaching the young one, who he had named as Vivi. Young Vivi still doesn't know how he had been caught on a fishing line, since he had no memories until that point of awakening, so-to-speak. The Qu had been in solitude for so long, he actually enjoyed the company of someone he once thought to eat._

"_Grandpa, what's a city?" Vivi asks when Quan showed a city map, one of the many things he had picked up because he could. The black mage had recently grasped the concept of reading, and had seen the city map._

"_City is large society, many people live in same community. There a city beyond home, Treno. Many noble people there, though there be two sections of city; poor and rich." Quan had never been there, but he didn't had to, to know of Treno's usual attractions._

"_Poor and rich? Why would they want to separate themselves by money difference?" Vivi is confused of that concept. Humans are able to communicate and interact with each other, have the company of others like themselves. Why would they __**want**__ to make things difficult for themselves?_

"_Noble people stick noses up in air at those less fortunate. Are believing that they better than others, though few are kind to poor. There still good people, but must find without offend the powerful rich that stick nose in air." Quan looks to the young and not-plump black mage for a minute. "When you explore, best bet to look to kind middle-class people. Be kind, receive kindness back most time. May get opportunity to get something if ask."_

_Vivi nods, his yellow eyes showing the intelligence that was once never there. "I understand, Grandfather."_

**Disclaimer**

I don't own Final Fantasy IX, none of the characters, storyline, or plot, and what-not. Those that are obviously not of the game belongs to me (Iapis), MoonRhodes, and Kayoni. Sorry for not updating. I... don't have a reasonable excuse other than that my Final Fantasy IX game had finally died and would probably never play again. I had been playing the game and writing the script and action down as I write this story. I had finally been able to find a great script of FFIX that I can use as a reference.  
And... well, it didn't help that my sister, Cindy, had been killed in January, so... I've only recently felt like taking back up the challenge of writing new chapters.  
Thanks for your patience... and I hope you can forgive me Moon and Kayoni. I sincerely hope that you're both doing alright!

**Chapter XI:** Ice Carven

Zellen remains in the tent, sleeping off her weariness, as Zidane steps out to the morning, even though the sun is barely showing through the Mist that covers the continent. Rose and Koroku remains around the smoldering campfire, both wide awake. The thief wouldn't know if either had bothered going to sleep. Though somehow, Steiner had fallen asleep. Standing up. Well, that's a first for Zidane, but he figures it has to be all of the armor holding the idiot up. With a quiet 'Heh,' he walks past the campsite and heads for the blocked entrance of the forest.

Garnet awakens, feeling much better now that the seeds were purged from her system thanks to Blank's medicine. Looking around, she could see that Zellen is fast asleep, but Zidane had left the tent. Vivi was awake, so he talked with the princess, in which she is glad for the company. As Vivi yawns, Garnet wonders where Zidane went. Curious, she pushes through the flap of the tent and looks around. Spotting the two people that were awake outside, Rose gave a very small smile before lazily pointing to the forest. With a nod of thanks, she leaves the tent entirely, deciding that she needs to talk to Zidane.

Quickly enough, she found him staring at the entrance of the forest, and she became a little worried. He has to be thinking about his friend. But he quickly puts on a friendly face as he hears her approach.

"How are you feeling?" he asks with concern.

"Good... thanks to that medicine you gave me." She looks to the entrance of the forest, perplexed. "Could this be...?" Garnet said hesitantly as she looks to Zidane.

"Yeah, I was surprised, too," he said as he looks at her instead of the forest. "After we beat that big plant-guy, the forest got completely petrified."

Garnet nods a little, looking sad. "Vivi told me that we were able to escape because of your friend."

"...His name is Blank." Zidane's face fell from the cheerful composure he had on.

"We must go help him." But he shakes his head.

"We can't do anything for him right now."

"But... I can't-"

Zidane smiles lightly, cutting Garnet off in mid-sentence. "We'll come back for him. I'm sure there's a way to cure him." She looks reassured, so he continues, optimized now. "Let's get going. According to the map that Blank gave me, there's a cavern to the south of us." He looks in the direction that he's sure is south. "Maybe we can get above the Mist through that cavern."

But Garnet bows her head, in which Zidane worried at first. "Are you alright?" She only nods in silence. "Everything's gonna be fine. Trust me."

Back at the camp, Vivi had finally wakened Zellen when Zidane announced that they were leaving soon. So she steps out of the tent groggily, rubbing her eyes to rid the sleep. Koroku has been ready since dawn came, and Rose stretches her good limbs the best she can, looking forward to the travel. Everything had already been packed.

"Look! There's something coming!" Vivi said as something flies at them from the forest. But everyone relaxes as a moogle lands and runs at them.

"Wait! Kupo!" he said. It's Monty from the springs, though he had been hiding in the stump that seemed to have been supplying the springs with fresh water. Zidane laughs lightly as Vivi shakes a little from the surprise. "I'm impressed, kupo! First time I've seen anyone escape from Evil Forest. You all must be strong, kupo!"

"And it takes a moogle to tell us something we already know," Rose said softly as she grins.

"But don't get cocky, kupo," Monty said when he heard Rose's comment. "Lots of stronger monsters ahead." As soon as he turned his back on Rose, she stuck her tongue out at him, causing Koroku to chuckle and Vivi to laugh quietly. At least it calmed Vivi from his shakes.

Monty looks to Zidane and then grins as he approaches him while pulling something from a sidebag. "I have a gift for you, kupo. Take this flute." With an eyebrow raised but not asking, Zidane takes the flute. "With this flute, you can call us anywhere in the world, kupo."

"What for?" Zellen said arrogantly. Moogles never seem to be helpful to her.

"We carry supplies you may need," Monty said as his pom-pom bobs in his nodding. "Though the way you said that, I could very well ignore you," he adds, in which Zellen rolls her eyes.

"Well thanks, we'll keep that in mind," Zidane said with a grin. They're about to leave, even though Steiner remains oblivious to all that's happening around him.

"Happy trails! Kupo!" Monty said with a wave while Garnet nods to him.

"Thank you," she said with a most gracious smile.

Monty bounces up for a second, his pom-pom poinging. "Kupopo!"

"Bye," Vivi said slightly shyly as Garnet and the others starts to leave the campsite. Zidane grins as he whaps Steiner in the shoulder as he walks by.

"Kupoo!" Monty watches as Steiner jumps at the hit, and then the sound.

"!! What the..." He looks around, missing the group leaving entirely as he looks at Monty. "Who goes there!?"

"Your friends already left, kupo," Monty said as he points in the direction everyone went. Steiner jumps and runs after them with extra vengeance.

"Princess, wait!!" he yells, his armor clanking as he goes. Rose rolls her eyes as he catches up.

"And here, I thought we were finally ditching him..." Zellen grumbles. Zidane laughs as he pats his sister's shoulder in sympathy.

'_It seems there is already an solution made by Zidane,'_ Rose thought to herself as she could see that he is considerably more cheerful, in which was making Zellen become a little happier. So she decides it might be best to keep her mouth shut after all. If nothing else, she'll offer it if they find no solution after all.

"You're not limping so much today," Zellen comments to Rose, and Rose gives a slight smile. She had noticed that her ankle wasn't hurting very much for the day.

"I heal fast enough."

"Apparently. With white magic, though, you could have healed it, and perhaps your wing," Koroku said. But Rose only shrugs.

"Unless it is life-threatening, I do not usually heal myself. Besides, my white magic is not strong enough to heal broken bones."

"Well, aren't you a pain in your own side." He grins under his mask, though Rose could see it in his eyes, as well.

"Oh, let her do whatever she wanna do," Zellen said as she shakes her head. _"(Though I agree with him...)"_

"I heard that."

Approaching the North Gate, Steiner demanded to go there and at least see about the smoke they could see even with the Mist. They had no idea it was actually the North Gate, so with grudging acceptance, they all agreed to check and see. It very well could be someone in trouble.

"Where are we?" Garnet asks softly as they finally neared the gate enough to see the entrance, though it was barred and unmovable.

"I think this is the North Gate. It's beneath the Mist," Zidane said slowly as he looks around carefully at the cliffs. "It lies between Alexandria and Burmecia." Then he scratches his head. "I think it's called... Melda Arch or something?"

At this point, everyone looks at the rising smoke, and a waving flag. Rose growls lightly as she continues to wrinkle her nose at the scents all around, some of which was blood. Koroku looks at the flag with a look of disdain in his eyes, but he didn't say anything.

Zidane looks down at the dirt, then kneels down to examine the patterns made. "Fresh footprints... And there's smoke rising." Though before he could say any more on the matter, Steiner then made a exclamation.

"That flag...!" he gasps as he gawks at it. "That is Alexandria's war banner!" He starts shaking, enraged by the thought of someone trying to claim the attack was made by his very city. Jumping up and down a few times in his rage, he continues. "How dare they commit crimes in the name of Alexandria!" Finally, he calms enough to realize that he was starting to upset the princess, so he settles his rage for another time. "I should like to arrest and punish them if the circumstances were different!" he then huffs. But that is all he could do.

Garnet remains silent as she places her hands together in front of her, looking at them. It was like she knew something Steiner didn't.

Zidane knew that they needed to keep going, not to mention the fact that Garnet was going to start doubting herself again. "Let's get outta here," he said as he looks to the others. Garnet nods in agreement while Rose crosses her arms. She was ready to go the moment they stopped to examine the place. "The cavern lies to the left of this arch. We'll follow the ledge!"

"We'll just follow the yellow brick road..." Rose mutters to herself as they move away from the gate. Even if they remained to try and get the people to open the gate, it would be for nothing. After all, they were on the outside, and the people were inside the gate. They would never have won the argument if they tried.

"What was that?" Steiner said in result to her muttering. Rose shakes her head as she uncrosses her arms and continues to walk.

"I was just commenting on what idiots I am traveling with, and how much of an idiot I was to begin with," she retorts when he didn't seem happy with her silence. He turns red in the face and jogs ahead, Rose lightly laughing to herself. It was just too easy to piss him off, especially when she was in the company of Master Kuja and the queen herself.

"That ought to keep him quiet..." Zellen comments to Rose softly before catching up to her brother. Roes can only hope so.

The travel was long, stretching to about three hours with all the small stops they had to take because of Rose, Garnet and Zellen. But eventually, they finally neared the cavern. Even though they only stood at the entrance, all of them can feel the cold, icy winds that were strangely blowing from the cave. Rose wraps her good wing around herself while they look up at the distance between them and the surface above the Misty.

"This must be the cavern..." Zidane said softly as he looks up at the top of the cavern.

"U-Um..." Vivi seems to have something on his mind.

"What's up Vivi?" Zidane asks as he looks at the mage. Rose and the others looks to him as well.

"Have you ever heard of the Ice Cavern?" he asks almost timidly.

"Sure... Is this the place?"

"I think so... It's supposed to be near Evil Forest."

Garnet looks thoughtful. "...I've heard of it. It's supposed to be a beautiful place, covered in ice."

"And eternally cold," Rose murmurs softly with a sigh. She hates cold places, but she won't be complaining in front of her companions. Zellen nods in agreement with Rose, not exactly thrilled with the idea of traveling through ice and snow in a cave.

"My grandpa told me about this place," Vivi continues as he walks forward, looking up at the icy formations forming on the ceiling. "He said the cavern takes travelers to the top of the Mist." He looks back as Steiner comes to life.

"Bravo!" he said with such admiration, grinning. "Master Vivi's grandfather must be quite the scholar! We must thank him upon escaping the Mist!" he then declares. Vivi glances away from Steiner at that.

"My grandpa used to teach me lots of things, but he passed away..." Vivi said quietly. With sudden empathy, Rose walks over and places a hand on his shoulder, knowing the grief all-too-well. He seems to calm a little from her consideration.

"Oh... Forgive my indiscretion," Steiner said with such a large amount of compassion that Rose actually looked at him in surprise.

"Don't worry about it," Vivi said with a small smile, looking to Steiner for a minute. At this point, Zidane knew they need to change subjects.

"Well... why don't we go inside?" he said as he turns back to the cavern. Zellen shivers as she stands next to her brother, wrapping her arms around herself.

"We're going to be frozen before we make it to the end..." she said softly, still grieving on the inside. In any other situation, she'd do this with a grin, demanding for Blank's warmth all the way through.

With some consideration, Rose then sighs to herself as she shrugs out of her long-sleeved top after untying the strings on her back, which closes the flaps around her wings. Underneath is a red top with no sleeves, not to mention that both the red top and the long-sleeved one were showing off her stomach. But because she has the warmth of feathery wings, she'll survive better than her friend.

"Here," she said to Zellen as she presses her top to the girl before walking away, so that Zellen couldn't refuse it. "It is not a blanket, but it will keep the worse of the winds away from bare skin." At least all that is bare for Zellen is her arms and face.

"Thanks," Zellen said softly as she pulls it on after a minute. If she wasn't feeling so bad, she would have thrown it at Rose with defiance, saying that she wasn't weak. So with that, everyone walks into the cavern.

Bypassing the entrance entirely and walking up the pathway, Garnet moves quickly ahead of the others and looks all around her in fascination. "Oh...! What a beautiful place!" she exclaims as the others looks at her. "Seeing the actual cavern is so much better than reading about it!" With her high-enthusiasm, almost everyone lightly smiles and chuckles. She then walks over and examines a icy-colored flower. "Oh, how pretty... I wonder what kind of flower this is?" Rose couldn't argue that the plant is indeed pretty. But Steiner then ruins the mood.

"Princess! Please, don't touch anything!" he said with a worrying tone, in which Garnet sighs and looks at him with a look of regret; if only he didn't get on the ship with her...

"Can we get moving? I'm freezin' here," Zidane complains as he wraps his arms around himself, much like what Zellen had.

"Y-Yeah," she agrees as she continues to move forward.

"Some leader," Koroku said under his breath, Rose hearing him through the mask and the wind. She smiles lightly, but they all agreed with Zidane and continues to walk on.

Throughout the trip, following the pathway in the snow, they kept running into monsters that could only survive in the harsh environment. And many times, Zidane asked of Vivi for his magic to get through ice when they were blocked. Vivi was happy to comply, since his magic was actually useful instead of a hindrance. So the entire time they walked on for the exit, or perhaps the place to get out of the wind before it got completely dark, it was mostly uneventful.

Steiner seems to have something on his mind as he seems to be placing Rose's face in his mind of where he had seen her before. Then it hits him; she's one of Her Majesty's important guests! Oh, how shame-faced Steiner looked as he glances at Rose guiltily, in which had her looking at him in confusion.

'_So he finally recognizes me,'_ she thought to herself, but she didn't comment. She might as well let him wallow in his own despair; after all, she could report to his queen of how he had treated her the entire time. Though if they _do_ make it back to Alexandria, she wonders who would kill her first - Queen Brahne or Master Kuja?

Spotting a fork in the path, Zidane could see where one is calm, while the other continues to emit a chilly wind.

"Let's go rest in there!" he said to the others as he starts to walk to that pathway. The other were all too-willing to follow, since it meant a place where the wind won't be hitting their faces. They found a dead-end, but at least it was warmer without the wind. They'll need the rest.

"Huh? What's this...?" Zidane said while the others were finding a place to sit and rest, placing their bags on the ground. Only Zidane remains standing, looking at an odd ice. "Hey, Vivi!" he calls to the mage, who stands back up.

"Y-Yes?" he said as he walks to stand next to Zidane.

"Vivi, do you think you can get him out of the ice?" Zidane asks. Vivi looks to the ice again, and realizes that it's actually a moogle trapped in the ice.

"I can try..." Vivi said, though he was going to try his best. After all, he likes moogles. Walking over to the ice, he then uses his fire magic. The ice quickly melts, and the moogle instead instantly came to life.

"Whoa!" Zidane said as the moogle dances around.

"Hot! Hot! Hot!" the moogle cries out, in which everyone looks at it in surprise and amazement. "You bastards!!!" the moogle then shouts, not thinking clearly just yet. Then he evaluates what just happened. "Oh, I can move again! Thanks, kupo!" He jumps down and shakes hands with Vivi as an apology. Even Zellen lightly laughs, but in sympathy to the moogle.

"I think the fire was too strong..." Zidane murmurs to Vivi, but he had a grin on his face. "Good job, Vivi!"

"T-Thanks," Vivi said with a smile as well.

"I've been frozen in the ice for quite some time, kupo!" the moogle said. "I'm Mois, kupopo."

"N-Nice to meet you," Vivi said to the moogle.

With sudden edginess, Rose stands and moves away to the entrance of the small cavern, her bag in hand out of habit. None but Koroku noticed, so with curiosity, he follows her to the entrance.

"What's up?" he asks her. Between her and the moneky's group, he preferred her company. After all, she isn't very talkative, thus less annoying to him.

"I am not sure..." she said as she looks at him. "It is just a feeling..."

"You get them very often," he notes as he leans against the closest wall of the tunnel, crossing his arms. "You had them throughout the entire time in the forest."

"So you noticed," she said with a light half-smile. It didn't quite reach her eyes, but at least she smiled.

"Who wouldn't." Koroku leans away from the wall, uncrossing his arms. "I'm surprised you're only getting them now."

"I doubt there would be a large forest-plant monster about to petrify us all here," Rose said with a little bit of humor. She starts to walk further down the tunnel, in which Koroku follows her. Only Zellen looks up to see them walk off, but she didn't think twice on it. After all, those two could be talking about the next part of the plan.

"No, I suppose not." Koroku is surprised at how much easier it was to talk with her than the others. "But there can be something else here, all the same."

"Yeah..." She shivers a little as they near the pathway where the wind is blowing from the other tunnel. Her wing wraps around her again. "That is probably our trouble..."

Suddenly, they heard a faint ringing sound in the wind. The two looked at each other before moving directly into the wind to look up the pathway and see if they could see the source. They were both out of sight of the group, so no one noticed when Rose and Koroku suddenly found themselves falling asleep, and a few figures coming down the tunnel and picking them both up to walk off back in the direction they came. Another figure watches the retrieval, not affected by whatever the wind had done to Rose and Koroku. He smiles lightly to himself, then turns at the figure causing the wind.

"Do the same to the others, but take the princess and leave the rest to die," he said softly as he turns away to leave the cave. The mysterious black mage chuckles as he nods and bows his head.

"Of course, Master Kuja. Of course." He watches the black mage minions carry the girl and boy out the cave with Kuja, but they were heading for the direction of a small ship. Kuja has somewhere else to visit, to Dali...

**Well, I hope this is good. XD Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and will enjoy the next one that comes soon! See ya then!**


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